By Jessica Brodie

Have you ever been on a roller coaster?

You climb into the seat, and an attendant straps you in. Then you’re off! There’s nothing you can do about it from then on—your body is hurtled up and down and upside down and sideways, and perhaps you scream in delight (or terror). However you react, the ride takes you where the track is going no matter what you desire. Maybe partway through you wail inside your head, “I want off of this thing!”

Still, you’re powerless until the ride is over. The ride is in control.

For many of us, that’s how our emotions are, too. We let our emotions take us on a roller coaster ride. We let our feelings control us, pushing us one way or the other. We let our emotions manage us instead of us being the ones in charge of managing our emotions.

That’s not a healthy place to be, and it has spiritual ramifications as well.

Scripture urges us not to be like children, “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind” (Ephesians 4:14 ESV). While that portion of the Bible is speaking about not being led astray by false doctrine, I think we can apply it to an emotional roller coaster, too.

For God is not like that. God is steady, perfect, constant, and unchanging. Hebrews 13:8 proclaims, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” God says in Malachi 3:6, “I the Lord do not change.” James 1:17 describes the Lord as “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

When we let our emotions rule us, manage us, we are letting them be sovereign. Our rational mind takes a backseat while chaos reigns supreme.

That cracks open the door for the devil. That makes our emotions priority, not the Lord. We spend so much time feeling and reacting to our feelings that it drowns out the other voice speaking into our soul, the true voice.

God’s voice.

Perhaps we make choices to please our emotions or heed temptations we otherwise would not.

When she was younger and in the throes of anxiety and other mental illnesses, I watched what this did to my daughter’s life. Her wise counselor urged her to learn how to manage and master her feelings so her feelings didn’t manage her. She needed to be the boss of her emotions, not the other way around.

It’s the same for all of us.

Our spiritual walk is so much more than just a feeling, and our souls are so much more than feelings. It takes every bit of who we are—thoughts and emotions and everything else that makes us the person God created us to be—to walk in alignment with the Lord. When we’re allowing one of those aspects (the emotional state) to rule us, then at some point, God stops being our head. God stops ruling our lives.

That is decidedly not a good thing.

So remember—riding a roller coaster at an amusement park is just fine temporarily. But beware letting your emotions take you on a roller coaster ride consistently. Get them under control. Manage them. Tame the chaos and turn everything over to the Lord so that he can reign supreme in your life.

“You shall have no other gods before me,” the Lord commands in Exodus 20:3—the first and perhaps most important of all the Ten Commandments.

Amen to that.

Will you join me in a prayer?

Heavenly Father, I don’t mean to put anything above you. I want you to rule my life. But sometimes, the feelings within me build to a crescendo and I feel utterly controlled by my emotions. Anger, fear, sadness, and other feelings take me on a roller coaster ride, eclipsing everything else… even you at times, I confess. Please help me to stop letting my emotions rule my day and ultimately my life. Help me manage them and push them aside so I can focus on you and allow you to rule me. Help me to surrender only to you, Lord. In the holy and precious name of your Son Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

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