Don’t Get HIJACKED by Your Own Emotions!
By Neil Gass  

WHY DO I FEEL WHAT I FEEL?

Ever have a day when your emotions took over & literally hijacked you? You resisted, fought it, tried to distract yourself from the feelings, but they took over the entire day, eventually dumping you, exhausted, into bed like a wrung out dish rag! You never did figure out why you felt what you felt.

Feelings appear to be so arbitrary. (“I can’t help it. I just feel that way!”); so mysterious, (“I’ve no idea why I feel this way!”); so irresistible, (“There was nothing I could do to stop the feeling!”); so powerful, (“I was totally taken over by the feeling!”) so paralyzing. (“I was overwhelmed, immobilized by the feeling!”) We all have to deal with feelings & most of us don’t do a good job of it, because we don’t understand the mechanics of our emotions. “What MAKES me feel what I feel?”

To get a handle on this vital issue we have to back up one step. My mother, to whom I owe much of what I’ve learned about God, the Word of God & spiritual life, was one of the smartest women I’ve known. But mom didn’t know that. I’d hear her say frequently, “Ach, sure I’m so stupid!” She was smart, a musician who taught & played piano & could preach a message with the best of preachers! But she FELT stupid, inadequate and incapable so much of the time & nobody could convince her otherwise. Now, she didn’t feel stupid because she was stupid. She felt stupid because she THOUGHT she was stupid. She would take on a legion of demons & terrify them, but she’d be paralyzed with intimidation before one thought! On the other hand, you & I know lots of stupid people who think they’re smart & in spite of evidence to the contrary, they FEEL smart. The thing to remember is: YOU FEEL WHAT YOU FEEL BECAUSE YOU THINK WHAT YOU THINK!

“As a man THINKS . . . SO HE IS!” (Proverbs 23:7) There you have it, as plain & uncomplicated as it gets. Our thoughts create our internal experiences, the things we call feelings or emotions. Feelings are not caused by other people, circumstances, events or the devil, and they don’t just arise out of nowhere & attack you! No, they are logical responses to your thoughts. It’s not the sad event that makes you feel sad. It’s your thoughts about the sad event that make you feel sad. It’s not the frightening event that makes you feel fear. It’s the fearful thoughts you think about the event that make you feel fear. Most events, positive or negative, happen outside you & have no emotional impact on you, till your thoughts about the event bring them inside you and make them emotional experiences.

It’s really a matter of human biochemistry & physiology and follows a very logical pattern. You see or hear something; you perceive it in a particular way, that is, you think about it, talk to yourself about it in a particular way. Your brain turns your thoughts into biochemical messages which are sent to the appropriate centers & glands, which, in turn, respond to it by releasing appropriate biochemistry into your blood stream. This biochemistry sets up corresponding physiological responses which generate your FEELINGS! So it’s YOUR THOUGHTS ALONE THAT PRODUCE YOUR FEELINGS. Nobody MAKES you FEEL ANYTHING. YOU do that by your own thoughts!

“ WHY DO I THINK WHAT I THINK?”

“So okay, I get the thing about my thoughts producing my feelings, but what makes me think the things I think?” Go back for a moment to Proverbs 23:7. “As a man THINKSin hisHEART, SO HE IS.” With your HEAD you think, analyze, explain, interpret, synthesize, form conclusions etc. Your HEART performs a MUCH MORE FUNDAMENTAL FUNCTION. ITBELIEVES! It doesn’t do mathematics or logic or engineering stuff. That’s the role of your head. Romans 10:10 puts it this way, “For it is with your HEART that you BELIEVE.” Simply put: your head thinks, your heart believes! Your heart is the repository of the things you hold to be true, accurate, reliable, real, right, dependable, consistent across time & beyond question! It’s the CORE OF YOUR

BEING! As the CORE of an apple determines its very nature, dictates that it will become an apple & not an orange, so WHAT YOU BELIEVE DETERMINES WHAT YOU BECOME! Yourheart does this by CONTROLLING YOUR THINKING. We’re back now to your question about why you think the things you think. Are you ready? YOU THINK WHAT YOU THINK BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE! 

Christian or heathen, your life and future are controlled by what you believe, even when you’re not aware you believe it, and even when what you believe is untrue. A LIE is as powerful as the truth, if you believe it to be true! You may have the IQ of a genius, but if you believe you’re stupid, your life will be dictated by that belief. What your HEART BELIEVES, you HEAD cannot help but THINK!

• You can’t think like a winner if you believe you’re a loser!
• You can’t think positively when your beliefs are negative!
• You can’t function effectively when you believe you’re ineffective!

Nothing’s more powerful in your life than the things YOU BELIEVE! You WILLlive out your beliefs. Make certain they are the kind you want to live out. You are where you are today because of the things you believe. If you want to be somewhere different tomorrow, you’ll have to CHANGE WHAT YOU BELIEVE! We’ll look at how you can do that in upcoming editions of the MESSAGE for the MOMENT. Meantime, start detecting & notingWHAT YOU BELIEVE, so you can deal with it effectively.