Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
In a general sense, your emotions are a product of your thought life. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he”(Prov. 23:7). If you are not thinking right, if your mind is not being renewed, if you are not perceiving God and His Word properly, it will be reflected in your emotional life.
One of the best scriptural illustrations of the relationship between perceptions and emotions is found in Lamentations 3. Jeremiah expresses despair as he wrongly perceives that God is against him and that He is the cause of his physical problems (Lam. 3:1-6). That is why he vents his feelings of entrapment and fear (3:7-11, 18). If your hope is in God, and these words are a correct portrayal of God, you would probably feel discouraged too.
What was Jeremiah’s problem? His perception of God was way off. God wasn’t the cause of his affliction. God is not someone who plays games with your life. But Jeremiah wasn’t thinking right, perceiving right, or interpreting his circumstances right, so he wasn’t feeling right or responding right either.
Suddenly, Jeremiah’s perception changed: “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness”(3:22-23). What a turnaround! Did God change? Did Jeremiah’s circumstances change? No. His perception of God changed and his emotions followed suit.
You are not shaped so much by your environment as you are by your perception of your environment. Life’s events don’t determine who you are; God determines who you are, and your interpretation of life’s events determines how well you will handle the pressures of life. In reality, we have very little control over our emotions, but we do have control over our thoughts, and our thoughts determine our feelings and our responses. That’s why it is so important that you fill your mind with the knowledge of God and His Word. You need to see life from God’s perspective and respond accordingly.
Romans 12:1-2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
In a general sense, your emotions are a product of your thought life. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he”(Prov. 23:7). If you are not thinking right, if your mind is not being renewed, if you are not perceiving God and His Word properly, it will be reflected in your emotional life.
One of the best scriptural illustrations of the relationship between perceptions and emotions is found in Lamentations 3. Jeremiah expresses despair as he wrongly perceives that God is against him and that He is the cause of his physical problems (Lam. 3:1-6). That is why he vents his feelings of entrapment and fear (3:7-11, 18). If your hope is in God, and these words are a correct portrayal of God, you would probably feel discouraged too.
What was Jeremiah’s problem? His perception of God was way off. God wasn’t the cause of his affliction. God is not someone who plays games with your life. But Jeremiah wasn’t thinking right, perceiving right, or interpreting his circumstances right, so he wasn’t feeling right or responding right either.
Suddenly, Jeremiah’s perception changed: “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness”(3:22-23). What a turnaround! Did God change? Did Jeremiah’s circumstances change? No. His perception of God changed and his emotions followed suit.
You are not shaped so much by your environment as you are by your perception of your environment. Life’s events don’t determine who you are; God determines who you are, and your interpretation of life’s events determines how well you will handle the pressures of life. In reality, we have very little control over our emotions, but we do have control over our thoughts, and our thoughts determine our feelings and our responses. That’s why it is so important that you fill your mind with the knowledge of God and His Word. You need to see life from God’s perspective and respond accordingly.
Romans 12:1-2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
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