Live by obedience, not emotion

Emotions have a tone that we call “feeling.” And the tone of feeling is very strong. Most of us realize how we feel. We make decisions driven by feeling. Relationships are established or damaged because of feeling. Seeing what felt good, enjoyable, and to be desired is what led Eve to disobedience. The Bible does not say she was hungry; otherwise, she would have eaten of every other tree in the garden of Eden. Emotional drama in the first woman opened the door to emotional drama in all of us. So it’s genetic. And emotions require satisfaction: anger, hurt, and love want to be satisfied. If we do not rule ourselves, we live in the drama of emotions gone bad. To be a born-again Christian whose emotions have not been touched by God is an insufficient lifestyle. God must do a work in us called “transformation” (see Romans 12:1-2). Emotions must be renewed so that hate turns into love, cursing to blessing, resentment to forgiveness, anger to peace, and heaviness to praise. Transformed by God’s Word and His Spirit, we’re released from the drama and chaos our emotions can produce. When we’re driven by our emotions, we want a “feel-good” mentality. But Eve teaches us that the feel-good mentality is a terrible motivator and leads us into trouble. Our lives must be motivated by the Holy Spirit, and His motivation is not just to create good feelings; His aim is to produce obedience. Obedience will always surpass emotion, and obedience will always satisfy in ways that emotions will never be able to.