- We have permission to feel
- Emotions are symptoms
- Emotions make terrible leaders
- Anger: Cain and Abel
Genesis 4:2b-8 // Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Ephesians 4:26 // In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.
Judges 6:13 // “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
- The presence of fear or doubt doesn’t negate faith
- Fear itself isn’t a sin, but the elevation of fear above faith can lead to sin
- Grief: Jesus
- Even perfect love expresses emotion
- It is not a sin to grieve
- Emotion, when anchored in truth and love, strengthens relationships.
- Emotion is not the enemy of relationships—misuse of emotion is
- Emotions must be:
- Expressed properly (Cain and Abel)
- Second to God’s voice (Gideon)
- Submitted (Jesus)
