I was both elated and nervous to write this devotional when I was assigned the topic: Transform your Emotions. You see, I am someone who has struggled with mental health my whole life, specifically depression and anxiety, with varying degrees of success. If I am being honest, I feel that I have mostly not met with success. I often allow my intrusive thoughts to run rampant and the anxiety to take over. 

On Sunday, Pastor Carla said that emotions are a part of the human experience. So, be encouraged that you are NORMAL to feel emotions. 

The problem lies with letting our emotions control us. So HOW do we renew our emotions?

2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we must take captive every thought. Often, I use that verse as a reminder to also take captive every emotion. I visualize it as catching my emotions before they fly away and turning them back to God. I try to pass my emotions through a biblical lens. For example, if I am feeling anxious about provision, I grab that emotion and redirect it back to God. I remind myself that He takes care of the sparrows, so He will take care of me, too. If I am sad, I grab it and send it back to God, knowing that the Bible says He mourns with us. It has helped me get my emotions to be more and more Christlike, especially my anger. Is this something that would anger God? No? Then I need to find a constructive way to let it go. 

I am not at all an expert, and even in writing this, I am convicted to be better at controlling my emotions.

But I am thankful that God created us and loves us with all our feelings and emotions, and that when we try and fail, He loves us still.