What is emotion?
According Miriam Webster dictionary,
"emotion is strong feeling (such as love, anger, joy, hate, or fear)". Encarta Dictionaries defines it in two ways: 1. A heightened feeling; strong feeling about somebody or something. 2. Agitation caused by strong feeling; agitation or disturbance caused by strong feelings. Proverbs 29:11, " A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back" (NIV).
Concept of Emotion.
The term emotion originated from Latin as emovere. The word was later used in French as "emouvoir" denoting strong feeling that leads to public disturbance.
Everyone experiences a certain level of strong feeling (Emotion) but our attitude towards these strong feelings goes a long way to form our personality (Phil. 4:6-7, Eph. 4:26).
Components of emotions:
According to Han Yu; "seven constituents of emotional make-ups are: joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire. He added, a Man of superior emotional make-up will display these emotions in a balanced manner". Other elements of emotion include: guilt, grief, etc. This can be connected with the words of King Solomon in Proverbs 25:28, "Like a city whose walls are broken through, is a person who lacks self-control" (NIV).
Biblical Guidelines for Handling Emotions:
Lets reconsider the components of emotion, which one is taking a better part of you?
👉Joy? Eccl. 7:14, a strong feeling of joy can easily lead to sin, why not apply moderation? Prov. 14:13, "Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief" (ESV).
👉Anger? Eph. 4:26-31, Eccl. 7:9, Prov. 22:24-25, the later verse warns, "lest you learn his ways and ensnare your soul".
👉Sorrow? 1Thess. 4:13, 1Sam. 16:1-... How long do you dwell in sorrow?
👉Fear? In fear, we get tensed up and agitated, the Lord says, "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” ~ Isaiah 41:10. David affirms, "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" (Psalms 56:3-4).
👉Love? This is another emotional make-up that has great influence in our lives, it has been misapplied in several occasions (see 2Sam. 13:1-ff). Love should also be shown in moderation and in line with the scripture. Hebrews 13:1 says, "let Love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, ..." (Romans 12:9-10).
👉Hatred? Prov. 10:18, 1Jn. 3:15, recall how strong love changed to stronger hatred from 2Sam. 13:1-ff and the dire consequences.
👉Desire? 2Peter 1:4, James 4:2. According to George Bernard Shaw, "There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it". No wonder people kill and destroy just to attain their desired goal.
👉Guilt: The feeling of guilt can be very disastrous. However it should be an opportunity to run back to God. Psalms 51:1-ff, Jonah 2:1-ff... The feeling of guilt will compound your problems but Salvation is of the Lord. Why not seek Him at once.
Psychological ways of regulating emotions: (five families of emotion regulation strategies).
Situation Selection > Situation Modification > Attentional Deployment > Cognitive Change > Response Modulation (I will talk about this in my next writing)
God bless you🙏