Have you ever known exactly what God says about a situation and still struggled with fear, worry, anger, discouragement, or anxiety?
Why is that?
If God’s truth is so powerful, why do our emotions sometimes seem even more powerful?
Perhaps the problem isn’t that we have emotions. After all, God created us as emotional beings. The problem comes when our emotions begin driving the train instead of riding in the caboose.
When fear takes over, we panic.
When anger takes over, we say things we regret.
When discouragement takes over, we lose hope.
When anxiety takes over, we struggle to trust God.
Over the years, one of the most common issues I’ve dealt with in biblical counseling involves emotions and how they affect our thinking, our relationships, and our walk with Christ. That’s why I’ve decided to update and republish this series on handling emotions biblically.
In the weeks ahead, we’ll look at anger, depression, guilt, fear, worry, anxiety, and suffering—not from the perspective of popular psychology, but through the lens of God’s Word.
Because while emotions are real and powerful, they were never designed to lead us.
Handling Emotions Biblically: Introduction
In this series, we’ll cover:
Anger
Depression
Guilt
Fear & Worry
Trials & Suffering
And we’ll grow in our ability to handle these strong emotions so they don’t handle us, instead.
Emotions
They’re real. They’re often powerful. And they’re part of being human.
God Himself is described as having emotions.
The psalmist said, “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7.11b), and another psalm says, He laughs at His enemies (Ps. 2.4).
Genesis 6.6 says, “ And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Numerous times we’re told God is a jealous God (Ex. 20.5; Josh. 24.10).
But He, also, has compassion on His servants (Ps. 135.14; Jud. 2.18; Deut. 32.36).
And He rejoices over His people (Zeph. 3.17).
We know that Jesus wept (Jn. 11.35) over sin and its results on His creation.
Isaiah said he was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Is. 53.3).
And Mark 6:34 says He had compassion on the multitudes who listened to Him.
That doesn’t mean God’s emotions, and ours, are always the same. When God expresses emotions, they are perfectly just and righteous, never sinful. He never has a bad day, and He never changes His feelings toward His redeemed.
Lousy Leaders
Emotions like anger and fear often come with powerful feelings. Feelings that tend to control how we treat others, how we respond to the tests and trials of life, and whether or not we obey God.
While the feelings themselves are not always sinful, if they’re not dealt with biblically, they can quickly become so.
And while emotions are real and often powerful, they’re lousy leaders. When we allow our emotions to control our thoughts, words, and actions, we can end up in a ditch.
Imagine a Train
Imagine your life or mine like a train. When emotions are pulling the train, it’s just a matter of time before the train gets derailed. Those intense feelings lead to irrational, angry, or depressed thoughts. The train is picking up speed. Before we know what hit us, we’ve said something we regret. And, if that emotional engine keeps going, we’ll do things that either hurt our loved ones or sabotage our lives. Train-wreck.
As believers, instead of being led by our feelings, we need to be led by the principles of God. That often requires going against our feelings. It also means letting our emotions ride in the caboose.
The Heart
Emotions come from the inner man, what the Bible often calls “the heart.” It’s also referred to as the spirit of man or the soul. It includes the mind, the conscience, and the will.
When we’re injured or experience sickness in the outer man, the body, it affects the whole body. Think about the last time you had a toothache or stubbed your toe. All your attention was focused on the injured part.
When part of the inner man, often our thoughts, are not in line with God’s principles and promises, it will affect the other parts. That’s why it’s so important to renew our thinking with God’s truth.
When we decide to live by the principles of God and believe His promises, learn to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10.3-5), and choose to see our circumstances through the grid of Scripture (Rom. 8.28-29; 1 Cor. 10.13), our words and actions will begin to change (Matt. 12.35). Then just as the caboose goes where the engine leads, our feelings will go where our thoughts go. Right thinking, ultimately, leads to right feelings.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll take that list of negative emotions one by one and look at the principles that apply to each one.
The next post in the series is: Handling Anger Biblically Part 1.
And here is a complete list of all the posts in this series:
On Anger:
Handling Anger Biblically Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
On Depression:
Handling Depression Biblically – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
On Fear, Worry & Anxiety:
Handling Fear & Worry Biblically: Acceptable Sins?, Part 2
On Guilt:
Handling Guilt Biblically Part 1, Part 2
On Responding to Tests & Trials:
Handling Tests & Trials Biblically: The Divine Squeeze, Part 2: Coming Forth as Gold
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Blessings,
Donna
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