Human beings have the potential to experience extreme positive and negative emotions within the context of marriage. We have the capacity to feel love and hatred; pleasure and pain; joy and sadness; peace and anxiety; confidence and fear; birth and death of loved ones. These are strong emotions and many people are not prepared to accommodate these dimensions of emotions. Emotions are so strong; they shut down your capacity for reasoning. King Solomon compared a man who is in love to an eagle in the air, a snake moving on the rock and a ship on the sea; to an external observer, they do not have mapped out paths. Scientists have now helped us to understand falling in love better; they acknowledge that when a person falls in love, certain chemicals – dopamine and norepinephrine – are released in the brain. These are neurotransmitters which alter the way you feel and see things when they rush into the brain. They also have the ability to change the rate of one’s heartbeat. Interestingly, these are the same chemicals which are released in the brain when someone takes cocaine.
So, drugs have the same effect on a person who falls in love. Love intoxicates! Until you are ready, don’t go there because falling in love affects your thinking and sense of reasoning (Songs of Solomon 8:4, NIV). The start of a relationship makes everything take on a beautiful colour; such that you do not see what is wrong with the person you are in love with.
Amazingly, for some people, within some weeks, months or years, the emotional high is no longer there and sparks begin to fly. When this happens, the chemicals have changed. There are dynamics in marriage that create negative emotions. Dynamics like coming to terms with the other person’s weaknesses and habits, differences in eating habits, degrees of neatness and relationship with extended family members. When the dynamics of marriage change, people look for positive emotions from different sources including: sex, alcohol, idolatry and witchcraft. Here, witchcraft, translated from pharmacia, refers to the use of drugs which affect both the body and mind. When negative emotions fester, they produce extreme negative emotions like, anger, fits of rage, jealousy, selfish ambitions, drunkenness and envy (Gal 5:19-21, NIV). Witchcraft was banned in the Old Testament. Even though God created Man as a spiritual being, who experiences peace, joy and love, He did not arrange for Man to experience them through drugs. Drugs are destructive when they become addictive.
God has an alternative to drugs. When you feel the negative emotions of depression, greed, frustration, envy, violence etc, you need a power that is beyond you to manage your emotions and put you on a positive plane. You need the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 61: 1-3). The infilling of the Holy Spirit will produce the same effects that alcohol would (Acts 2: 4, 12-13; Job 32:8). A Christian marriage must be different (Gal 5:22-26, NIV). The Holy Spirit gives you capacity to love and be filled with peace (Ephesians 5: 18-25; Romans 5:5). He changes your emotions before He changes your circumstances (Proverbs 15:15). To get filled with the Holy Spirit, pray (Romans 8:26). When you keep Him out, other spirits will be allowed in (Philippians 4:6-7). Switch to the right channel. The Word is our manual; read and study it.
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