The goal of growing wiser emotionally is an important one for us as Christians, and would seemto fit naturally with our need to become more Christlike. Unfortunately, many Christians fall into a perspective about emotional life that hinders them. They assume that Christ expects themto give himcontrol of their temperament, and that this is the end of the matter. This assumption is noble and well-intentioned. But what does it mean? That we should let Christ manage our emotions as though we were robots in his hands?
This is the sort of outcome we too often have in mind when we speak about having a “Christ-controlled temperament.” We assume he willsimply take over the whole emotional process for us, and relieve us of allstruggle. Our role is to disregard negative emotions we experience and “give themup to him.” We shouldn’t give much attention to our desires and longings, either, which are likely to lead us down the primrose path; we should yield themto him, and assume that his will is probably different fromwhat we naturally want.

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