Jesus Commands The Emotions

"Jesus does command the feelings. He demands that our emotions be one way and not another. . .If a feeling is proper to have, Jesus can demand it. The fact that I may be too corrupt to experience the emotions that I ought to have does not change my duty to have them. . .My moral inability to produce it does not remove my guilt; it reveals my corruption." - John Piper, What Jesus Demands of the World, pp 52 - 53

Wow. I (and probably 99% of people) assume my feelings just happen and that I'm not responsible for them. If I'm in a lousy mood, I'm responsible to treat people respectably, but I don't have to worry about my mood itself. WRONG! I am commanded to rejoice. The word "rejoice" is found 202 times in the ESV, and a quick skimming of them shows the vast majority are commands to rejoice ("You shall rejoice", "Rejoice in the Lord always" ), not a mere statement of observation ("And Jethro rejoiced"). My inability/unwillingness to control my emotions is yet another sign of my utter need of Christ.