1. Trying to take on our feelings directly

We don’t know the power of feelings if we think we can just face them directly with willpower. The direct approach at changing our mind at the spur of the moment is not helpful. If we are being strongly influenced by feelings of anger, fear, sexual attraction, the need for approval, ambition, and such, to just say, “Quit it!” to yourself, or to simply give in and allow your feelings to rule, “I can’t help how I feel,” well… There is a better way.

2. Denying our destructive feelings or pouring them out on others

It doesn’t do any good to ignore the fact we do have destructive feelings like anger, greed, jealousy, lust, and the list goes on. The Bible even has these lists in several places (e.g. Colossians 3:5-8). We can’t deny we have these sinful feelings and we can’t just try to keep them inside and then they will naturally go away. There is another way.

The other way is not to act these feelings out. We don’t give in to them and take it out on our others. We don’t scream at someone and then think, “Now, I feel much better.”

The way to transform destructive feelings is to replace them with helpful feelings. This is one of the central keys to living a transformed life. It is only under the partnership of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can become the kind of people who lose these awful feelings, and have feelings that are helpful to others as they build us up.

Think about an example when you used one of these methods.