Processing our Emotions before God

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

God made us emotional beings, but emotions are tricky things.

If you are like me, you have been repeatedly, in various ways and at various times, overwhelmed by your emotions. What are we to do with these seemingly “unwanted guests”? We need to take our emotions to our Maker and process them before Him.

My good friend Alasdair Groves in his book Untangling Emotions does a great job looking at our inner life through the lens of Scripture. I commend his book to you. He shows that our emotions are a way to explore the deepest movements of our soul—what we most deeply believe, treasure and desire. Thus, engaging our emotions honestly—understanding and processing them—is intended by God to drive us to Him, so that we might more fully believe, treasure and long for Him. He writes:

“Every time you run to a bottle, a screen, or an event instead of your heavenly Father, you are disengaging from your emotions and from him.

“Don’t be deceived. Each of the many above actions is ultimately more than an action. Actions always reveal our core beliefs and confidence.” (Untangling Emotions by Alasdair J. Groves and Winston T. Smith, p. 166)

How you engage your emotions will either drive you to God or away from Him. One is the way of spiritual life; the other the way of death.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah”

~ Psalm 62:1-8 (ESV)

Citation: Untangling Emotions by Alasdair J. Groves and Winston T. Smith (Crossway, 2019).