Emotions (2)

Our emotions surface all the time. Some of us suppress what we feel and do not share it with friends, family or even God. Do we feel it is a sign of weakness to be excited or sad? Why are we uncomfortable about being passionate about Christ, our salvation and our worship? Why do we think tears of joy and thanksgiving are embarrassing? Why do we apologise for them? We need to understand that God created us as emotional beings, and he has a divine purpose with what we feel.

We have feelings because God created us that way. He created us in his image. And God also has feelings. In Deuteronomy 32:21, God is speaking of his emotions in terms of his relationship with Israel:
"They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities."
There are times when God is angry, because his people serve other gods, are disobedient and irreverent.

The Bible also speaks at length about the love, mercy and compassion of God. It is the Lord’s feelings of love that moved him to give his only Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. God is love. God is defined by his love for us, and his grace and mercy that save us, are the fruit of his divine love.

When you read the Gospels, you see the love of the Saviour at work. All his miracles and all his teachings testify of his glorious love for us and his desire to have a relationship with us. God has emotions. Jesus has emotions. We can also sadden the Holy Spirit. Thus we, created in God’s image, therefore also have emotions.
We too can experience love for God, our fellow-man, our earthly family and our church family. We too can make a difference because we have compassion and mercy and we also know what anger is.

The only problem with our human emotions is that we sometimes allow them to take charge of our lives, leading to insensible and unwise actions that left common sense, our faith knowledge and wisdom out of the equation. Then we may hurt not only ourselves, but also those most precious to us - and we do not act in a God honouring way. We are then left with regret, because emotional damage is hard to repair.

Dealing with our emotions is harder than we think. We need Jesus to help us. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us. We need the Word of truth to educate us.
We need the love and compassion of our Lord, to console us.
(Next time more about God’s purpose with our emotions.)