Week 6 – The Danger of Letting Our Emotions Drive

I love that God created us with emotions. After all, we are created in His image, and God has emotions. God the Father shows emotions like love (John 3:16, 1 John 4:8), compassion, mercy (Psalm 103:8), anger, wrath (Romans 1:18), and grief (Genesis 6:6). God the Son displays emotions such as compassion (Mark 1:41; Matthew 9:36), joy (Luke 10:21), sorrow (John 11:35), anger (Mark 3:5; Matthew 21:12-13), and love (John 13:1). God the Holy Spirit expresses emotions of love (Romans 15:30), grief (Ephesians 4:20), comfort (John 14:26), and joy (Galatians 5:22). God embodies every emotion we can feel, yet He is without sin. There’s nothing wrong with our emotions unless they cause us to push God out of the driver’s seat of our lives and take control of situations ourselves. 

One of my natural struggles is unforgiveness. I have to constantly work on not dwelling on offenses in my mind and holding the offender hostage in my heart. Unforgiveness is one of my proverbial “thorns in the flesh” that God uses to remind me that I have not “arrived” and will always need Him to help me release people who offend me, just as He did. 

My mom called me years ago and shared a serious offense against her by someone close to our family. I grew increasingly angry as she told the story. By the end, I was boiling over and told my mom I was going to call the person and let her have it! My mom begged me not to call, but I abruptly hung up, dialed the number, and let her have it! I ignored my mom’s advice, and I certainly didn’t listen to the Holy Spirit, who was shouting, “No! Stop!” I let my anger take control. I pushed Jesus, my mom’s wisdom, and all common sense out of the way and recklessly sped into chaos and unforgiveness. 

The fallout was intense. An exchange of angry, hurtful words took place, and insults flew back and forth. Anger and unforgiveness persisted for months. The costs of my careless disregard for the fruit of the Spirit, especially self-control, were high. Interestingly, my mom forgave the person shortly after the incident and restored their relationship. I was left holding a grudge that wasn’t even mine to bear. Author, speaker, and Bible teacher Patricia Ashley calls this “taking up an offense.” This means I wasn’t directly offended, yet I took offense on my mom’s behalf. When reconciliation finally happened, I was left out, appearing angry and foolish. My uncontrolled emotions led to a series of negative consequences that only Jesus could heal, and He did.     

Moses finds himself in a similar situation in Numbers 20:2-12. After being delivered from roughly 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the Hebrew people were led by God, through Moses, toward the promised land. After repeatedly hearing the Hebrew people’s constant grumbling (Numbers 20:2-5), Moses and Aaron petitioned the Lord by entering the tabernacle and prostrating themselves on the ground. God gives Moses specific instructions to take his staff and speak to the rock so water would flow and meet the people’s needs. Instead of speaking to the rock as God instructed, Moses, 1) reacts with sinful anger, calling the Hebrews rebels (which God did not tell him to say); 2) takes credit for providing the water by asking, “must we bring you water out of this rock”; and 3) strikes the rock twice with his staff instead of speaking to it as commanded. Moses “takes up an offense” against the Hebrews that God did not appoint him to. As a result, he reacts emotionally in anger. Still, God honored His promise to provide and caused water to come from the rock for the Israelites, but Moses was disciplined for his disobedience. What’s interesting is that God told Moses to bring his staff to speak to the rock. Why would God ask him to do that when the staff was not needed for speaking? Moses was known for not being eloquent in speech and was insecure about relaying God’s messages to Pharaoh to free the Israelites. Instead of obeying God and allowing Him to speak through him by speaking to the rock (Exodus 4:12), Moses used his personal staff, which God transformed into “the staff of God” (Exodus 4:20b), as a tool of wrath. When not aligned with God, Moses reverted to his natural way of handling anger (Exodus 2:11-12).

We already have everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), just as Moses already possessed the staff but misused it. Are the gifts from God we possess being misused? Are the gifts God has given to us bringing Him glory, or causing us or others to stumble? If our emotions are not aligned with God’s will, they can be misused and abused. The gift of mercy, when paired with the wrong emotions, can lead to ignoring or excusing a friend’s sinful lifestyle instead of lovingly guiding him/her to God’s truth; the gift of exhortation, when misused, can lead to legalism instead of reflecting Jesus’ love; the gift of leadership, when misused, can become dictatorship instead of servant leadership; the gift of giving, when misused, can become poor stewardship of God’s resources instead of prayerful allocation for His purposes; and the gift of teaching, when misused, can sway others toward our preferences rather than God’s truth. Moses had a staff transformed into an instrument of God’s power and glory, but he misused it to release his sinful anger and to rob God of His glory. His uncontrolled reactions cost him and Aaron entry into the promised land. 

Friend, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, we possess the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faith, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). Self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit. Through Christ, we can control our thoughts, actions, and yes, our emotions. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).