I do not want to go off on a psychiatrist session here, so to speak, but I would ask you to consider these two statements, “He hurt my feelings,” and the other, “I allowed my feelings to be hurt.” I do not need to ask you which one you have heard the most, and I mean no offense here, but personally speaking, I have never heard a man say either one of them.
We are all made in the image of God, (Gen. 1:27) but in the area of expressed emotions, women far outweigh the gift that God has given us to express our emotions. They serve, if you will, a very specific purpose, they keep men from killing each other, or better yet, they help to prevent the outpouring of what many men express in their emotions, negative actions. This does not mean that women are more proficient at controlling their emotions, at keeping their body under subjection, (1 Cor. 9:27) but it does mean that the Lord has blessed them in such a way as to temper the man, if he will only allow it. Hence the opening statement here, the control of our emotional state when external influences act upon it.
You may not believe that this happens very often, but you would be mistaken, anytime you turn on your television or your internet connection you are being bombarded with emotional context meant for one purpose only, to modify the way that you will think. To put it bluntly, only the weaker mind can be so controlled, for although all minds are open to these perceptions, not all are so easily swayed. Think here on the last “story” on a news program and how you feel about it and then compare it to the opening story, how many advertisements have you seen in just the last few years that are repeating something of this nature, “You deserve it,” “We all need to pull together,” “You are stronger than you think.” All these and more are so prevalent that the majority of those weaker minds do not even see them as what they truly are, a means to bondage.
Do you realize that by clicking on a single app on your phone that you can raise your credit score? Does that indicate trust in your ability to pay the debt that you owe? No, it does not, it is meant for only one reason, to modify your thought processes, to make you feel better about yourself. Now, here, after all that, I would ask you this, when you left your church last Sunday after the service, did you feel better, or did you feel convicted?
Why do you believe that you are there, to congregate with other believers, to catch up on the news of the week, to sing songs? You are there for one reason above all others, to worship the Lord God, to glorify His name, to seek His will not only for you but for the church, the people that are there that are supposed to be doing that exact same thing. I ask you, in Romans 12:2 we are told to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. What does that mean to you? To not think bad thoughts, to only think of things that edify and build up, to meditate only on those things, (Phil. 4:8) or does it mean to not let your emotions rule your life.
Anytime that any emotion comes into your mind, you must stop and contemplate, why am I allowing this to control me, for all who will not do so will only be able to say “They made me feel…..” I am not saying of course that you need to be a logic only based machine organism, but if you will not attempt to keep your body under subjection, I can guarantee you that someone else will, and you will not even recognize that you are being manipulated.
