Processing our Emotions before God

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of The Kingdom Perspective.

How should we respond to the coronavirus crisis?

We should use this time to observe our emotions and learn better how to process them in faith before our Heavenly Father.

If you are like me, you have been repeatedly, in various ways and at various times, overwhelmed by emotions. Not surprising since this is such an unsettling time! What are we to do with, what often feels like, unwanted guests?

My good friend Alasdair Groves in his new book Untangling Emotions does a great job looking at our inner life through the lens of Scripture. I commend this 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 long for. 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 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.


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