Kevin shares his thought for the week; dealing with negative emotions.

We see a really bad example of dealing with negative emotions in the life of Cain. In Genesis chapter 4, we see that Cain and Abel, the brothers, bring their sacrifices to God. Abel’s sacrifice gets accepted whereas Cain’s gets rejected. We know that following this, Cain goes on to kill his brother. But between these two incidents, the Bible speaks about God’s conversation with Cain.

In Genesis chapter 4, God says to Cain,

“Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?”

Genesis 4:6-7a

Here, God doesn’t just look at Cain’s face or his body posture, but also at the posture of his heart. God realises that Cain is upset – that he’s angry, that he’s jealous, that he’s depressed from what’s happened. Hence God goes on to warn him:

“And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Genesis 4:7b

God is very clearly warning Cain about what might happen if he doesn’t deal with his negative emotions the right way. Quite often, we might be bad at how we deal with our negative emotions. As humans, it’s not wrong for us to feel negative emotions – but how we act upon them makes a big impact, and God is very clearly instructing us to master them.

We often feel that whoever becomes subject to our negative emotions and our actions will be the victims – but actually, it is us who are vulnerable. It is we who are the prey, and sin is the predator. Sin is crouching at the door of our hearts.

So it’s really important how we take God’s word into account and how we deal with our negative emotions. It’s important to bring these emotions to God and to do what Jesus would do. I hope you have a great week. God bless you.

Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.