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“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

There are three things to say about handling emotions well. The first, is that emotions are not to be despised. We are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and God has emotions, most clearly seen in Jesus as He wept (John 11:35 and Luke 19:41), overturned tables (Matthew 21 and Mark 11) and prayed His cup of suffering would be taken away from Him (Luke 22 and Matthew 26). We are meant to be people of passion and heart as Jesus instructed, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.” (Luke 10:27). The second, we cannot control how we feel but we can control what we believe. Our emotions can often lead us to believe what is false or imaginary. The writer of Lamentations 3 is arguably guilty of this with some very dramatic writing in verses 1-20. But clarity and reality comes, when in verses 21-24 he realises there is hope, the Lord’s great love and compassion never fails. Then third, we must be conscious of the devil’s schemes. There is no doubt that the devil loves to drag us down, destroy confidence and relationships, derail the potential God has in us with our emotions. Don’t allow the devil to drag you down but be alert and sober mind, cast all your anxiety on God because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7-8).