Keeping Emotions In Check

Peter tries to stop Jesus and gets a response none of us expect: “Get behind me, Satan.” That single line in Mark 8 can sound harsh until you listen closer to what’s really being confronted: a mindset shaped by fear, comfort, and short-term survival instead of the purposes of God. I walk through the moment step by step, reading Jesus’ plain words about suffering, death, and resurrection, and then unpacking why Peter’s “protective” instincts become a spiritual problem. 
 We connect that to Peter’s track record throughout the Gospels and to a challenge many of us face every morning: emotions are real and God-given, but they cannot be the boss. Fear, anger, and frustration can feel justified, yet they can also pull us away from obedience and wisdom. 

The hope note is transformation. I point to Acts and the filling of the Holy Spirit, where Peter becomes steady and powerful, speaking from God’s Word rather than from impulse. If you want practical faith, emotional discipline, and a clearer way to “start your day by starting right,” this short devotional will give you language and direction you can use immediately. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show, then tell me: which emotion do you need to keep in check today?

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Focus

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Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.

Mark 8 And A Shocking Rebuke

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There's an interesting interaction between Peter and Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Mark in the eighth chapter. Let me start reading at verse thirty-one. Jesus began to teach them that he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan, he said, you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. This seems like a very strange conversation between Jesus and Peter.

Why This Moment Feels So Strange

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If we look back into the book of Matthew as it relates the same story, it includes the portion of Scripture where Jesus changed Peter's name from Simon to Peter, because Peter means the rock. And Jesus had said, Upon this rock I will build my church. Now all of a sudden Jesus is calling Peter Satan. Let's take a look this morning at why Jesus would do that. The pattern that Jesus used to teach his disciples for the last three years was the always the same. It was to teach them, to show them, and then send them out to do it. That pattern was repeated several times, especially throughout the book of Mark. You can see where Jesus is teaching, Jesus does the miracles, and then he sends out the disciples to do the things that he has taught them and to do the miracles that they have seen Jesus do.

Peter’s Emotional Pattern Shows Up

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Well now Jesus is doing something different. He's telling them that he's about to leave. And this really upsets them. So Peter takes it upon himself to come and talk to Jesus and to try to straighten him out, saying, Look, this is never going to happen. I suspect that somewhere in that conversation there may have been something where Peter said, We don't even have to go to Jerusalem if they're going to kill you there. Let's let's leave because we're not ready for you to leave yet. We need you with us. I believe there were some portions of that conversation that were trying to pull Jesus back to get him out to be safe, because Peter and the disciples all did not want Jesus to go. Back in Mark it says that Jesus turned and looked at the disciples before he gave his response to Peter. And he spoke to all of them. And the last part of what Jesus said was the key in his response. Their minds were not on the things of God, but they were responding like short-sighted humans with no understanding of what God was trying to do. There was a very basic mistake made by Peter in dealing with this situation. He became led by his emotions. Peter had always done that. He was a very emotional guy. He was the one that jumped out of the boat and walked on the water. He's the one that would cut off the ear of the soldier when Jesus was arrested. He was the one who ran away afraid when others began to accuse him of being a follower of Jesus. He was a very emotional kind of guy. And because of that he would often let his emotions lead him.

Emotions As Gifts And As Traps

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Our emotions like to get involved in too many things, and that emotional response can create problems. Now don't get me wrong, emotions in and of themselves are good, they're gifts from God. But when our fear or our anger or our frustration or whatever we want to call it gets in the way of acting and doing the right thing, they become a problem in obedience to God. One of the key things that Peter needed to learn was that his emotions must remain in check and under control. He could celebrate good things, he could be frustrated with the bad things, but ultimately the emotions could not control him and guide him to make his

Living By Truth And Closing

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decisions. It wasn't until Acts chapter one, when the Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples, that Peter changed in what he was able to do because right after that he preached the most powerful and one of the most famous sermons of all time because he was not preaching based upon his emotions. He was preaching based upon God's word within him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our challenge every day, my friends, is to live lives that are not dominated by our emotions. We are to live our lives based upon God's wisdom and God's truth and what he has for us. And we need to make sure we don't fall into that trap of if we feel angry, just sort of letting it out. There's too much of that going on right now. We need to be able to keep our emotions in check and make sure that we are following what is right so that we can always be the example that God wants us to be. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Denny Mack.