Beneficial versus Permissible

I am what most people would call an emotional thinker. My heart is perpetually on my sleeve, and usually across my face, for everyone to see and interpret. Quite often I let my feelings dictate the way I think about something. As in "I feel at peace about this" or "this just feels right to me". I was content to just go about my merry way and chalk this up to one of the things that make me Leslie. However, I have recently been asked two questions that have caused me to stop and think about this:

1) Is it unBiblical to trust your feelings?
2) Should we just accept that something is right because it is considered inherent to our personality?

The second question is much easier to answer. No, we should certainly not just allow ourselves freedom to act a certain way because that is "who we are". One of the best things I have read about this came from one of my dear friends blogs (entitled Knowing Aint Even half the Battle). He said it so good the first time that I will let him say it now:

                      "i know my tendency is to chalk up certain things to "that's just how i'm wired." God has obviously wired us all uniquely and specifically and i'm not suggesting all of our personalities should dissolve so that we're a bunch of Christ-bots with no humanity in us. BUT we should be characterized by Christ and we should deny the flesh. the point is that people see Christ, not us...because our personalities/emotions are natural, we embrace and justify them, but our sin is natural, too, and we seek to deny it. where is that line drawn? denying ourselves is made up of more than just doing what Christ wants. it means doing the things Christ wants with the attitude Christ would have. of course, the key to that is wanting what Christ wants so much so that it becomes what "we" want."
One of the most convicting verses for me is 1 Corinthians 10:23,

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive."

It would be very easy to say, "I am just a bear in the morning" (which I have actually said before), and then allow ourselves to act grumpy and rude to people because hey, we gave them fair warning. But I think that the Bible is very clear on the fact that we should deny our flesh and pursue the fruits of the Spirit, which last time I checked did not include "grumpy" or "cranky". And here is how this ties in, because I ask myself should I be allowed to let my emotions control me because I am an "emotional" person? Heck no. While it is permissible for me to have feelings and use them, it is not entirely beneficial for me to let them be my benchmark for decision making or compass for guidance. Why? (pay attention because this is the answer to question #1):

We have been given emotions so that we may know Christ and His love more fully and so that we may show this love to others. God encourages us to emote by asking us to show the fruits of the Spirit - peace, joy, patience and love - in Galatians 5:22. However, one of the other fruits He mentions is "self-control". This was added because of the list of emotions he gives right before the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:20 - "hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy". As believers, we are entitled to emotions. They are natural and they are always present. But they are not always good and they are not always right. Even the good emotions can be misleading. We can put so much stock on emotions that we forget logic and run headlong in to a terrible situation because it felt "fun" or "good" or "easy". Emotions change with circumstances and with our mood. They are hard to predict and therefore harder to trust. This may be why the Bible instructs us that:

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.Who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

or

"There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. " - Proverbs 14:12

or

"Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe. " - Proverbs 28:26

Even Paul thought he was doing the right thing when he persecuted the Jews, "I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth"(Acts 26:9). He believed that he was being led in this way, to the point that he was "convinced" inside himself.

Our emotions are helpful in telling us how to decipher conviction and for leading us in to worship and intimacy with God. They are important for us to understand the pain of others and to have compassion and sympathy for those who suffer. Not all emotions are bad. Some are very, very good. We are called over and over again to love and kindness. However, we can not base our decisions on the way that we feel. Jeremiah 10:23 says, "LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps". Our wisdom and discernment should not be internal. The driving force behind our actions should come from the knowledge of an external source, the Bible. This should be our road map and compass for deciding what is good and right and beneficial to our lives.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105

Believe me, I am struggling through this myself. I basically live my life by the way I feel at a given moment. I seek to understand my own feelings far more than I seek to understand how God feels about something. I have had a surge of emotions lately that have been confusing and changing. It has been hard for me to keep up with them and harder for me to understand them. But, in light of what the Bible has made clear, I need to stop focusing on my feelings and start balancing them with the facts. And those can only be found inside the Bible and can be interpreted by the Holy Spirit within me. In this I feel quite confident.