I have to tell you something very important.
Your emotions are not reliable. They will set you up for failure and leave you out to dry.
This is not to say that you're emotions aren't valid, because they are. Life happens and our feelings aren't something that we can control. People will hurt us. Life will disappoint us and it is perfectly healthy to feel/process those emotions as they happen.
The danger comes when we act on how we feel instead of what we know to be true. As believers, especially we have to remember that God's Word supersedes our feelings.
Let's start with a popular scripture, Ephesians 4:26 says:
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:"
This is a directive given about a feeling we all have experienced. God doesn't say don't be angry. He acknowledges that anger is an emotion that He has given us, He knows that anger happens. He being God, also knows that it's easy to do things because we're angry. It can feel like a knee jerk reaction. Someone ignites our wrath and off we go. Yet God has given us this directive to practice, that validates how we feel and protects us from ourselves.
The overarching truth about our lives is that, as believers we choose to represent Christ. We choose to be living testaments of God's love, grace and power. We submit to God's plan and will for our lives so that God can be glorified. The goal of this life is still heaven and to bring as many people with us as possible, our lives need to reflect that.
What's interesting about our reality is that God’s plan for our lives is God’s plan for our lives how we fit, is entirely up to us.
It was in God’s design from Samson’s conception that he be the one to deliver the children of God from the Philistines (see Judges 13:5). Yet, it may not have been in God’s original plan for him to die doing it. Samson allowed himself to be ruled by his emotions. He relied on his anointing to carry him. But gifts and callings come without repentance (Romans 11:29)
, God will allow you to operate in His will, and you can still choose to forfeit heaven. Matthew 7:21-23 says:
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
The thing that fascinates me about Samson is that God allowed Samson to slay the Philistines while living out the consequences of his actions.
As a Nazarite and part of the conditions of Samson's power, Samson was not allowed to cut his hair. Samson falls for a Philistine prostitute and allowed his love for her to cloud his judgement to his demise.
He falls in love with Delilah and the Philistines use her to capture him. From Judges 14-16 Samson has been able to slay the Philistines without mercy whenever he so desired, but when Samson meets Delilah he gives her the key to his strength and so she cuts his hair and gives him over to the Philistines.
Samson's feelings left him out to dry.
God allowed it "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." (Judges 16:30) Yet, I can't help but wonder if he could have chosen a better path.
Whatever you're going through today, whatever you're feeling, measure it against God's word. Joshua 24:15 says:
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Everyday we have to choose who we are going to serve. We have to decide who we are going to represent. What ever actions you are choosing, do they reflect who God is in your life?