Is Emotional Stability Inherited, or Acquired?
MOST PEOPLE HAVE NEVER COMPLETELY GROWN UP!
We mature physically first — and then, finally, some people mature mentally. But only comparatively few people, it seems, ever mature emotionally or SPIRITUALLY!
The modern child-rearing methods, and the progressive education being disseminated in our schools follow the policy of "nonrestraint" where emotions are concerned. Emotions, they reason, are much like air in a bottle! The more you compress the air in the bottle, the more liable is the bottle to break. Therefore, reason the learned doctors of psychology, every kicking, screaming, uncontrollable tantrum a child stages is allowing a certain intrinsic amount of that "pent-up" pressure to escape — leaving LESS tension, and LESS emotion in the bottle!
The total fallacy and empty ridiculousness of such theories should be apparent to anyone!
Emotions do not have intrinsic value, but are mental reactions of habit. A rebellious, emotionally unstable child has learned the HABIT of rampant emotional outbursts, and, rather than lessening with each tantrum, the pressures of wild, uninhibited emotions are built up by habit!
Through the period of adolescence, the story is pretty much the same. The corner drugstore, the friends you had, the movies you saw and the car or the bicycle you had — all were governed by impulse, in most cases, and without real mind control. Our modern teenagers are the product of the war years when the "lid was off" nearly everything when it came to morals and social standards. The result is self-evident. Our American teenagers present one of the gravest problems, and are one of the biggest national scandals that has ever confronted a nation! Over one half of all auto thefts and other major crimes in recent years were committed by mixed-up, restless, thrill-seeking, emotionally unstable teenagers under the age of eighteen!
Today, the wild, weird, crazed "hippie," or motorcycle thug has become a veritable god to the teenage products of our hate-filled, permissive homes.
Shocking?
Yes — and more than that — an abomination in the sight of God, who is going to indict a whole nation for its crimes against its own children! Emotional stability is NOT a natural result of adulthood! The mind does not just "naturally" take control of the emotions of the average human being. Properly controlled emotions, and a level-headed, sound-minded approach to life must be TAUGHT, and is therefore ACQUIRED, not inherited!
The WRONG Use of Emotions
The Creator-RULER of this Universe reveals in His inspired Word that this present world is under the sway and influence of Satan the Devil (II Cor. 4:4). He is called the god of this world, this age, or society! Satan, as the deceiver and the destroyer, WANTS mankind to use emotions WRONGLY. One of Satan's greatest tools and weapons in trying to destroy humanity is EMOTIONALISM!
It was PRIDE, JEALOUSY, GREED, LUST, and VANITY that led Satan to VIOLENCE against his very maker. The Bible describes the devil as a "ROARING LION," and a "DRAGON." He is described as the very epitome of snarling, enraged, violent HATE!
How the Devil Failed
The greatest battle that has ever been fought was not a war between nations, not of spears and swords, not of guns and bombs, but an awe-inspiring struggle of the WILL! Jesus Christ fought that battle, to qualify to ultimately REMOVE Satan from his present position as ruler of this world! You'll find the thrilling history of that tremendous struggle in Matthew the fourth chapter. Christ had been in the wilderness area for 40 long days and nights, fasting! (Verse 2) Just think of how hungry He must have been! Satan the devil came to Him and craftily said, "If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (verse 3).
Notice!
The Devil appealed to Christ's EMOTIONS! First, to His office, that of Very God in the flesh, and second, to His extreme, near starving hunger that gnawed within Him! Christ COULD have acted on IMPULSE, as most human beings would have done. Jesus COULD have let vanity drive Him to do just as Satan had proposed! But did He?
Not at all!
Christ controlled His impulses — He MASTERED His emotions, and with His MIND, motivated by His willpower, He said, "It is written, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD!" (Verse 4)
Satan continued to play on Christ's emotions — always appealing to vanity to come to the fore, to Christ's authority and office. Jesus withstood every single temptation through the power of God's Holy Spirit, and by setting His WILL to MASTER HIMSELF — to RESIST acting on impulse, upon a sudden emotional suggestion! Christ finally gave a COMMAND, "GET THEE HENCE, SATAN!" (Verse 10) And the Devil was DEFEATED. He was WHIPPED by the superior mind, the power and overwhelming AUTHORITY Of Jesus Christ!
The Devil wasn't through with Christ yet, however. All during Jesus' earthly life, Satan worked on the emotions of the Jews in Palestine to kill Him! Finally, when God allowed it, Satan utilized his most effective weapon to finally bring about the horrible torture and death of Christ — RAMPANT EMOTIONS!
Notice, in the account of the crucifixion of Christ, in Matthew's Gospel, the people were gathered together in a Mob against Christ! Have you ever seen a Mob of people, angry, shouting, marching against the object of their hatred? Have you?
Do YOU believe such mobs are using their MINDS, or just raw, uncontrolled, violent emotions? Just such a crowd of unbridled hatred was unleashed against Christ. Pilate knew that ". . . for ENVY they had delivered Him" (Matt. 27:18). After the Governor had determined the mob wanted Barabbas to be released, instead of Christ, Pilate asked them, "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?" (Verse 22) And in their surging, reckless abandon to passionate hate, they screamed out, "LET HIM BE CRUCIFIED!" The governor tried to reason with them. He appealed to their minds, to their logic. He asked, "WHY? What evil has He done?" (Verse 23)
But did the wildly shouting mob stop to use their minds? Did they have control of their EMOTIONS? No!
"They cried out the more, saying, LET HIM BE CRUCIFIED!" (Verse 23)
And Satan had succeeded in his plot against the life of Christ. However, he never could have succeeded, had it not been God's express will that Christ die at that precise time for the sins of the world! God permitted Satan, however, to sway the emotions of the mob in order to murder God's own Son!
How similar must have been this farce of a trial to some of the screaming race riots of our ugly times!
God Wants Us to Use Our Emotions Wisely
Untold suffering and mental anguish exists in literally hundreds of thousands of homes right now because of the lack of emotional stability and control! What about YOUR home? Do YOU always control yourself just the way you would like to? Are you always in complete mastery of yourself?
The natural emotions God has built in the human being are not wrong in themselves — but, as in all things, they can be put to a wrong use! Jesus Christ had emotion! He was HUMAN as YOU are human, and as such He possessed the same human nature which He had to overcome. Christ learned obedience by the things He suffered (Heb. 5:8). He cried out with TEARS to God during His earthly life in order to succeed in mastering Himself, and finally qualifying as our coming King and World Ruler! (Heb. 5:7)
Jesus was deeply moved at the grave of Lazarus when He saw the total lack of faith in His most intimate friends! (John 11:35) And Jesus wept. He displayed a great deal of emotion over the prophesied destruction of heedless Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37). And He was moved with righteous anger and indignation against the hypocritical Pharisees on many occasions! (See Matt. 23; John 8:33-59; Mark 3:1-5)
God commands His servants to GROW in grace and knowledge (II Pet. 3:18) until they can reach stability, maturity, and use their emotions properly! "But strong meat [spiritual truth] belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5:14).
Basic Human Emotions
The very basis of all human nature, and therefore human emotions, is VANITY! "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, ALL is vanity" (Eccl. 1:2). The vanity in human nature is the source of the greed, and of the emotions of jealousy, bitterness, and hatred. Notice how most of the "works of the flesh" Paul warns Christians against, stem directly from uncontrolled human emotions! "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21).
Your natural human mind lusts to envy others (James 4:5) and is contrary to sound-minded emotional control. "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would" (Gal. 5:17).
Paul was further inspired to write to us, ". . . the carnal mind [the natural, fleshly mind] is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7).
The natural mind, then, is motivated by vanity and the lusts of the flesh, and is contrary to God's law, which is the channel through which God's LOVE flows. To remain carnal minded is to remain on the outside, looking in, for "except you repent, you shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3); and, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9). To be without the Spirit of God is to be carnal minded — and the carnal mind is just NATURALLY emotionally immature!
True emotional maturity, then, can come ONLY through God's Holy Spirit!
That is exactly what your Bible teaches! "For God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a SOUND MIND"! (II Tim. 1:7)
Various translations of the Bible render Paul's inspired statement in II Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a SANE MIND"! The King James (Authorized) Version renders it, "sound mind." Any mind that does not have God's Spirit is an unsound mind — a mind that is NOT spiritually SANE!
True sound mindedness can come only through OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S PERFECT LAWS! (Acts 5:32)
The times ahead are going to be more DEMANDING upon you than you can faintly realize! You are soon going to be plunged into a holocaust of unbridled, violent HATRED; of worldwide chaos and WAR!
What will you do then?
Will YOU become victimized by your own prejudices — your own passions, lusts, and uncontrolled emotions? Will you hate? Will you become gripped by a faithless FEAR? Will you, in the face of terrible persecution, LOSE CONTROL of yourself, and RENOUNCE your God?
It's about time you realized there is a way of ESCAPE and PROTECTION for those who will truly SURRENDER their hearts and minds to their Creator — to those who really want the Spirit of God to BREAK their hostile, carnal, HATING nature, and replace it with the great out flowing LOVE that can come only from God. Christ says His own ELECT will be SPARED in the perilous times ahead. He says those who are MATURE in true mental, emotional and spiritual maturity — those who really GROW UP will be spared!
Listen! "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the WORK of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: TILL we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a MATURE [margin] man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth BE NO MORE CIHLDREN, tossed to and fro [led by our unstable emotions!], and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may GROW UP unto HIM in all things, which is the HEAD, even Christ!" (Ephesians 4:11-15)
Why don't YOU grow up?