Sometimes we act like emotions are bad.
"She's so emotional."
"He let his emotions show."
Those aren't compliments.
But emotions are not bad. They're part of the good way God made us, beautifully baked into our biology. Emotions have specific purposes. As Nicole Whitacre has said:
"God gave us feelings to motivate us. Emotions move us to action. We feel happy and so we laugh, we feel righteous anger and we defend, we feel compassion and we help."
However, our emotions have been tainted by our sin nature, and they can lead us astray. We can feel happy or angry or sad for the wrong reasons, and we can act on those feelings in the wrong way.
Our emotions can manipulate and deceive us.
That's why Jon Bloom refers to emotions as "gauges, not guides." He says:
"They’re meant to report to you, not dictate you. The pattern of your emotions (not every caffeine-induced or sleep-deprived one!) will give you a reading on where your hope is because they are wired into what you believe and value — and how much."
Our responsibility is to submit our emotions to God. We need to always check our feelings to see whether they're a reflection of our trust in him. Are we using our emotions as gauges or guides?
Don't fear your emotions, but don't blindly follow them either.
Our emotions will lead us astray, but our hope never will. Today submit all your emotions to God and let them spur you to love others abundantly.