Emotions Under Control Series

have fallen in that same context because they would have let their emotions

lead them. Joseph didn't do that, but he fled the scene and paid a heavy price,

but he refused to be a slave to his emotions.

When a man can stand before the giants of lust and revenge and defeat

them he had gained a greater victory than David did over Goliath. John

Powell says what is true of all ages when he writes, "Your emotions and how

you deal with them will probably make you or break you in the adventure of

life." This is one of the major lessons of the story of Joseph and his brothers.

Joseph grew up in the emotion filled environment. He was conditioned by the

emotions that ran rampant through a household with 4 mothers and 12 kids.

He could never say with Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, "How nice to

feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive." The emotionless person is

just as dangerous as the excessively emotional person, for they can kill and

injure others without feelings of guilt and shame. The goal is not to kill

emotions, but to keep them under control so that they are helpful in

motivating us to do the will of God.

Emotional people who do not control their emotions are short range

thinkers. They do not plan far ahead, but go by the feelings of the moment.

God could not have used the other brothers to save the family because they

were like this, they act according to how they feel and never give thought to

the long range consequences. God's plan to get a Hebrew to the top level in

Egypt was a long range plan that took Joseph through the pit of rejection and

the prison of endurance before he ended in the palace of power. At any one

stage of this progressive journey Joseph could have blown it had he let his

emotions be in control. But he refused to forsake the dream and held on to a

long range hope, and God used him to change history. Only a man with

emotions under control could have lasted long enough to taste the victory God

had in store. What did God have planned for Reuben, Simeon, and Levi? We

will never know, for they let their emotions run their lives. They did violence

that destroyed their future. There was still a part of the people of God, and

blest in many ways, but they missed God's best because they could not control

their emotions.

A doctor I was reading told of meeting a man while vacationing in Florida.

He had found this island in the gulf of Mexico and was so excited. "This is

paradise!" he exclaimed, and went on to tell of how he was going to buy some

land and build, and end his days there in bliss. Two years later he met this

island enthusiast in the city and learned that he had already put his house on

the market. He said, "I couldn't stand it. The loneliness would have killed me

had I tried to stick it out." Emotional people tend to make a lot of difficult

decisions they have to reverse because they make moves that don't last very

long. They go by their feelings and their feelings are constantly changing.