What's leading here?

For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3:20-24 NLT)

As believers in Christ, we must forsake the desire to 'make ourselves right' by any other means than faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross. We are always going to think we could just 'be a little better' because that is human nature. We can never be 'more better' than we are in Christ Jesus! We are our 'best' in him - nothing we do or say can change us quite in the same way as trusting in him can do within us.

We are made right with Christ Jesus - that means we might not see all the change he has done in us, but it is done! As surely as God is God, the work of Jesus IN us is complete. So why do we still make dumb choices, give into temptation, and act in ways that are not very 'good'? We have a moment-by-moment choice as to which 'nature' we will listen to - our human nature or his holy nature within us. The more we give into those emotions that have guided us forever, we might not always make the wisest of choices.

Our emotions are up and down, not always reasonable, and are given to responding to outside stimuli at a moment's notice. In other words, they are not always listening to his voice and are responding to the circumstances instead. This is how we 'fall into' compromise - we let our emotions guide us instead of allowing his Spirit to guide us. The emotions will always pull us toward what isn't all that reliable until we ask God to take control of those emotions that give us so many problems.

We want 'right' emotions to govern our hearts, don't we? We don't want worry, fear, doubt, or envy - we want peace, courage, certainty, and love. We find this 'emotional battle' within to be kind of hard at times, don't we? We want what is good and right, but our emotions seem to be guiding us toward things that will not keep us on track. Until we learn to take those emotions to Jesus, seeking his wisdom in what brings them to the surface, we will never see how we can change our response to them.

If you have ever wanted a more 'balanced emotional life', you aren't alone. We all need to seek this balance, but some of us need to learn to see how misleading our emotions are in the first place. Others of us need to realize we have been giving into those emotions way too frequently. Still others might need to understand how the outside influences in life have been playing on our emotions. Ask Jesus for his help with your emotions and you will get the help you so desperately desire in managing and overcoming the overwhelming pull to live by those emotions. Just sayin!