http://www.oca.org/CHRIST-thoughts-print.asp?ID=237

For the true Christian, on the other hand, passions are the place where evil resides. The one who is a victim of his emotions is in a sense really passive, not free, because he or she is a slave to passions. . .

The one out of control and subject to his or her passions, even for a split instant, is not really free – he is a victim helpless to hold his emotions in check. He may think of himself as expressing his true feelings and in that way being a true personality, but the release of an impulse is a suppression of true personality. Who we are and who we are becoming are known but to God. . .

Only “him who overcomes” will come to realize his true personality. And that will happen when the person keeps himself or herself genuinely open to the Creator despite all that happens to him through a lifetime of constant challenges. The victim of impulses is blind, even if he isn’t aware of his blindness. He has surrendered the gift of freedom to a whim or impulse of the moment. He comes to believe that freedom is nonexistent – that all is conditioned, all reality is either determined or chaotic, and freedom is an illusion. He feels that his passions make him free, but he is unpredictable even to himself. . .

The Spirit-filled people of God are concerned to discover who they are in God’s eyes. They find that liberty is a matter of overcoming emotions. What makes us happy can be taken away. They spend a lifetime laboring to transcend fleeting feelings. Today we may laugh, tomorrow we might cry. Both smiles and frowns are signs of a world that is but a prelude to a far greater experience in the kingdom of heaven. True freedom is a glorious gift from God, but one that requires cooperation with the Giver.