Identity Conquers LustSample

Negative Emotions→Processing Emotions

The fourth root to which Paul’s instructions can apply is negative emotions. He says, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (4:26-27). Paul commands us to deal with our anger and not let it go unresolved.

Paul is specifically talking about anger, but this is a principle we can apply to any negative emotion. When we don’t deal with our anger or other negative emotions, it can lead to sin. It opens us up to the enemy’s attack.

Negative emotions, such as anger, are like the check engine light in your car. It alerts us that something is wrong and needs our attention. When we don’t address our anger, it can result in unwholesome speech, wrath, slander, or bitterness (Ephesians 4:29-31). Unresolved negative emotions can also give the devil an opportunity through sinful coping behaviors like gluttony, porn, or substance abuse. When we don’t process our negative emotions, we tend to medicate them.

During the Covid lockdowns, drug, alcohol, porn use, and binge eating exploded when people were isolated and stressed. Why? People were medicating their negative emotions. Addiction experts tell us that addictions take root at a deeper level when people use addictive substances to medicate the pain and discomforts of life. Because pornography is free, accessible, potent, and easy to hide, it has become the drug of choice for a generation.

We must learn to process our emotions with God and others instead of medicating them. In many of the Psalms, King David modeled for us what it looks like to process negative emotions. In one example, he said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23-24).

David identified his emotion and asked God to help him see where the emotion began. He knew his anxiety could be connected to a “hurtful way,” so he asked God for help. Amazingly, we are told that God wants to be involved with the cares of our life, “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Processing our emotions is an opportunity for us to connect more deeply with God and share more of our life with Him. It is also an opportunity to identify wrong thinking and replace it with the truth.

Our negative emotions often reveal when we are not living out of our identity in Christ. If I get angry, defensive, or down about a comment someone makes, it may reveal that my identity is not rooted in Christ but instead in my performance or others’ opinions. But if I’m not used to processing my emotions with God, like David, and I just stuff or medicate them, then I miss an opportunity to examine my emotions in light of truth.

Identifying and processing my negative emotions can be a practical way to evaluate if I am living out of my identity in Christ or if I am trying to get my significance and worth from someone or something else. The check engine light of our negative emotions can alert us to evaluate this and make sure we are rooted in the truth of who we are in Christ. When we run to an idol to medicate our negative emotions instead of processing them, it costs us more than we think. Processing our emotions with God is also a practical way to love God with all of our hearts as we invite Him into the emotional area of our lives.

Steps To Consider:

• Begin to identify which negative emotions most often lead you towards sexual sin and start bringing those emotions to God.
• Read through Psalms to see how David shared his heart and emotions with God. Start with Psalm 16, 55, 62, 103, 139.
• Memorize 1 Peter 5:7