Potion of Emotion

For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
(2 Peter 2:19 – ESV)

Our text is speaking primarily of individuals who dupe others, but we want to look at the idea that our feelings and emotions can do the same thing. They promise liberty, but they bring bondage, because if we let them lead, if we do not put them in their proper place, then we become enslaved to them (Romans 6:16). If we try and fly by our emotions, we are flying backward, by the seat of our pants. Have you ever made “an emotional decision” and how many times have you been “overcome with emotion”?

We are not denying your emotions. You have them, they are real, and everyone has them. We cannot give a prescription as simple as “keep a stiff upper lip”, or “just suck it up”, because emotions are not all bad. They are a powerful motivator and they explain a lot of things, but we often fail to process our emotions in a rational way, and we can get caught up in a whirlwind of emotional activity and make decisions we might not otherwise make if we were in a more controlled environment. Emotions are there to inform us, not to lead us. They inform us of how we feel about a situation, not about how we should deal with a situation.

Many times, however, we can be under the spell of an emotional potion and it poisons our thoughts to everything that would lead us in a right direction, and lead us to make good choices. Instead we are led to destructive behavior, and away from Christ. We must learn to rule over our emotions. Feelings can be good, they can help us in many ways, but feelings can be faithless, or misdirected. We can easily become spellbound by our own emotions if we do not learn to process them and put them in their place, using them instead of them using us.

A careless cocktail of fleeting feelings can become flaming feelings, and our addiction of choice if we continue to give in to them. Many times to entertain these thoughts is to yield to death (James 1:14-15 / Galatians 6:8). In Philippians 4:8, Paul tells us to direct our thoughts to right things. Romans 12:2 says that we are to turn ourselves over to God in order to renew our ways of thinking about things. Ephesians 4:22-24 confirms this and says we can put on a new way, a new man, one who is not like the old man, who was ruled by his emotions. Christ rules the new man. The new man is the new man of maturity.

Maturity is mastering your emotions. Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane showed Himself to be the master of maturity. He had emotions, for sure, but He said not my will but thine be done. How about you? You may have everything against you, but do you give up, or go on, are you ruled by your emotions or do you rule over them? Are you going to let some fleeting feeling gain ground and score a terrible touchdown on your home turf, or are you going to defend your mind and spit out the potion of emotion? Are you your own worst enemy? In your old man, yes you are, but are you going to put on the new man, or not? What clothes are you wearing? What scent are you giving off, the fragrant aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:16) that Christians are supposed to or the pungent potion of emotion, like the rest of the world?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©