And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house” (1 Kings 21:27-29 ESV).

Have you ever watched the movie “Inside Out?” It is an animated story about a girl whose five main emotions - Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and Joy - have a control room inside her brain and fight over who gets to control certain parts of her day and life; the movie is all about emotions. 

Emotions are in the fictional book on the coffee table, those that you interact with on a daily basis, and even yourself.  Emotions can be seen in everything, and they can be used for both good and evil. 

This week’s passage has a lot of emotions running through it, particularly Ahab’s. He is described as “sullen,” which means “bad-tempered, sulky, and gloomy.” Verses 4-16 show just how short-tempered he can be; he isn’t calm when he is told he can’t have the vineyard, and instead does everything possible to get the vineyard, even if it means ruining others’ lives. In verses 27-29, we learn that Ahab felt dejected, which means “sad, depressed, and dispirited,” and that this time of sadness humbled him before the Lord (v29). 

On one side of the story, we see how evil our emotions can cause us to become. When we use our God-given emotions for things that don’t glorify the Lord, they can tear us down, and we will end up bringing others down with us, just like Ahab did to Naboth. God gave us our emotions so we could use them to learn more about our relationship with Him and our life. Ahab wasn't angry about something that angers God, he was merely angry that he couldn't have what he wanted. Ahab was so angry that he couldn’t have the vineyard that he had Naboth murdered, just so he could own the vineyard. 

But on the other side of the story, we see how our emotions can draw us closer to God and help us relate to Him. When confronted about his wrongdoing by Elijah, Ahab allowed his emotions to lead him on a better path: he is humble, contrite and repentant and thereby experiences God's mercy instead of God's justice. As Ahab got to the place where his emotions could lead him into humility before God, so we can relate to Jesus by learning to channel our emotions towards what is good - don’t forget that Jesus cried and had emotions too!

Our fractured lives leave us with many hard choices, and one of them is how we should use our emotions. It is a very fine line between allowing our emotions to lead us to doing bad and doing what is good, and even though it may be difficult at times, we should always seek to use them for good. In this sense, Ahab should have tried to let out his anger in any way that was less harmful. 

How can you use your emotions for good? Reflect on how your emotions cause you to view yourself and how your emotions affect your relationship with God.