Slaves to Joy

Emotions are from God. God is deeply emotional, and deeply invested in His creation. He is not however unstable. His emotions are subject to His nature – one of love and goodness. He is moved by His emotions, much like we are.

Emotions are powerful. It’s not easy to “talk” yourself out of them. Your emotions are subject to your nature. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. Out of human nature emotions spring. These emotions are both positive and negative.

Our culture tells us to disconnect from our emotions. Don’t cry. Don’t giggle. Suck it up. Get the job done without whining and don’t get too happy when it is.

Our emotions need to get saved. They lie, they cheat, they interrupt. They need to be plumb-lined to truth. Though God rejoices over us our emotions will tell us He’s angry. Though God is a good Father our emotions will tell us that we’re orphans. Though God is near our emotions will tell us that He’s distant. Though God says that He’s made us clean our emotions will tell us we’re dirty.

It’s time to put the smack down.

Look at what David says in Psalm 4: “You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.”

This means that David was glad even when the grain and wine were absent. His gladness wasn’t intrinsically knit to outward success. His emotions weren’t always based in the present circumstance. There was gladness in his heart before the increase of grain and before the increase of wine.

We don’t have to be slaves to our emotions. We are not slaves but sons. We are not orphans we are children. We are not condemned we are forgiven.

Today, let the gladness of a glad Father fill your heart!