171. He Can Change What You Feel

Luke 7:13

Do your emotions ever get the best of you? Do you ever lose the ability to think your way through a situation you’re going through simply because you are feeling so much? Maybe the stress of a moment has you so completely tense and strained that you can’t do anything but panic; or else you’re so heartbroken, low and sad that you just feel trapped in the dark. Do you know what that’s like? People get ruled by their emotions because they believe their emotions are the truest thing about them. Their thinking goes like this: “My emotions are just an honest, direct result of what’s happening to me, so I can’t change them. They just are what they are.” The result is a person who is completely out of control of their own feelings. Did you know that tons of the prayers in the New Testament were about emotions? The Apostle Paul was always praying that God would give people peace and hope or fill them with joy and love. Jesus would take it a step farther. He would simply tell people to change how they felt. He told the women of Jerusalem not to feel pity for Him. He asked a bereaved household why they were wailing. He once told a grieving widow not to cry when her son was dead. How could He expect people to change feelings like those? Luke says that Jesus’ heart went out to that mother and then he raised the boy from the dead. You see, we don’t just change our emotions for no reason. We can change because Jesus feels for us and He is actually able to change everything. His love and power are bigger than our emotions.