Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Our emotions are God given and vital to a healthy natural and spiritual life. In the July 1995 edition of Time Magazine there was an article about the connection between emotions and intelligence. It told the story of a successful businessman who had an operation ten years prior for the removal of a brain tumor, the size of a small orange that was located near the base of his brain. The surgery was successful in terms of not affecting his intelligence or rational thought. However, his behavior was affected greatly. He went from being a very competent businessman to having trouble-keeping appointments, making decisions and so forth. He made a series of bad investments and basically lost everything. The peculiar thing was none of this seemed to bother him.
A tumor was removed from the part of the brain that controls the emotions. He was not able to feel emotion as he once did, therefore, to miss an appointment had no impact on him. Researchers discovered that every thought and decision we make has an emotion attached to it. The businessman had lost ability in the emotional part of his brain and consequently made poor decisions.
I believe God gave us emotions to be gauges similar to what is on the dash of our car. The gauges are not what control your car, rather, they tell you what is going on with the car. For example if your gas gauge is close to empty you know it is time to stop at the nearest gas station.
Our emotions are not designed to rule us, but to inform us of what is happening with our soul. That’s why emotions like delight (Ps. 37:4), affection (Rom. 12:10), fear (Luke 12:5), anger (Ps. 37:8), joy (Ps. 5:11), etc., are so important in the Bible. They reveal what your heart loves, trusts, and fears.
The enemy knows all about our emotions and will try to use them against us, meaning he will try to convince us that our emotions are in control, not only indicators. For example Paul wrote, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Rom. 6:12).
Everyone has felt critical, doubtful, or scared and attempting to minimize or ignore such emotions is like ignoring your gas gauge when it is on empty, it creates more trouble. So the key is for us to deal with our emotions in a healthy way. How can we do that? Here are four things that I have found to be helpful.
1. Pay attention to your thought patterns. Take note when your thinking become rigid and repetitive, playing like a broken record you’ve heard time and time again. That’s a sign that you are being controlled by a toxic thought with its associated emotion. When you identify those type of thoughts you can bring the force of the Holy Spirit on them and get to the root of the issue.
2. Label your thoughts and emotions. This allows you to see them as they are: gauges that give us data that may or may not be helpful. Taking this view of your emotions simplifies them; for example it turns the thought “My wife is wrong and she makes me so mad,” into “I think my wife is wrong and I’m feeling anger.”
3. View your emotions with an open attitude. They may be signaling that something truly important is at stake, such as your values, beliefs, etc. This gives you the chance to act on them in a healthy way.
4. The Word of God. Jesus is the Word. He wants to go deep. He wants access to the emotions, desires, passions and intentions of our heart. God has designed the Scriptures to have a very powerful effect upon our emotions.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
The Greek work for thoughts is enthumesis, which means emotion, passion or desire. It is the emotions attached to our thoughts. The word of God has the power to go into the depths of our soul and give life and wholeness to our emotions.
Many Blessings, BW