So often, our mood is determined by our present circumstance. I know this to be true because I’m often persuaded to feel a certain way, depending on my financial situation or how much I can accomplish in a day.

But if I constantly base my overall mood or happiness on what’s happening in my life, I would feel emotionally exhausted. Since circumstances are always changing, my emotions would constantly be changing too.

Instead of being led by truth, I would live my life led by my emotions, which isn’t a great way to make choices and take care of my responsibilities.

Don’t get me wrong, emotions aren’t bad. They are God-given and help us stay in tune with what’s going on in our lives and with those around us. Feelings of compassion or love can give insight to the state of our hearts. Plus, if we were completely void of emotions, we would be robots.

However, being in tune with our emotions and being led by our emotions are two very different things. If our emotions controlled our lives, we would spend our time being tossed back and forth, with a new emotion coming up every other moment of our lives.

Our emotions, happiness and joy should be fully rooted in Jesus, rooted in the truths of Scripture that anchor us to our ultimate hope and satisfaction.

For example, anger is not necessarily bad. When submitted to the lordship of Jesus, anger can be a powerful thing to feel. However, being controlled by anger that leads to destruction is not God-honoring or beneficial.

Every day we live in a battle. We fight against our sinful nature, the brokenness of the world and the ruler of this earthly world, Satan. This fight must be intentional, finding purpose in Christ alone. We must look to Jesus for value and satisfaction, not the world around us.

Earthly possessions, emotions, and circumstances are all temporary. They bring along with them temporary satisfaction, comfort, pain, and distress. Jesus is the only One who brings complete satisfaction, comfort, peace, healing, joy, and hope.

Life is hard and it seems like a new problem arises every day. It can always feel like it's something: not being able to pay this month’s phone bill, sickness that doesn’t seem to go away, or marital problems. Don’t let hard things produce bitterness, anger, apathy, or unforgiveness.

Instead, let suffering produce endurance, character, and ultimately hope.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

by Emily Rico