Journey to Eternity Podcast
We are a married Christian couple saved by the grace of The Lord Jesus Christ. In every episode, we help Christians use God's Word to navigate everyday life in a sinful, fallen world.
Journey to Eternity Podcast
Understanding God's and Man's Nature Through Emotions
This episode dives into the nature of emotions from a Christian perspective, reflecting on how to navigate both positive and negative feelings through God's guidance. Luisa and Mike discuss the importance of prayer, scripture, and community in managing emotions and highlight the righteous nature of God's emotions compared to human responses.
• Understanding emotions as a part of being created in God's image
• Positive emotions: love and compassion as divine attributes
• Negative emotions: the human struggle with anger, jealousy, and sorrow
• The role of God's unchanging nature in expressing emotions
• Practical strategies for managing emotions through prayer and community
• The importance of recognizing and processing emotions
• Aligning emotional responses with biblical teachings
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Brothers and sisters, god did not send His Son to die on a cross so we could wander aimlessly through life. He had a purpose for us to do His work, submit to His will and glorify His name. Join us on this journey, a journey to eternity.
Luisa:So welcome to the show.
Mike:I'm Louisa and I'm Mike, and this is episode 50 of the Journey to Eternity podcast.
Luisa:In every episode we help Christians use God's word to navigate everyday life in a sinful, fallen world. Did you say 50?
Mike:Yeah, babe, 50 episodes.
Luisa:Wow, let's take a minute to think about that. How?
Mike:good is our God. Yes, honey, he is so good. He certainly has sustained us. I remember five years ago when you first approached me with the idea of doing a podcast and I said no In fact, I probably never even listened to a podcast dinosaur that I am and you patiently waited for about nine months before I finally agreed to do it.
Mike:I sure did, and even then, I was skeptical. And I think it's because you never listened to podcasts, like you said, and I always listen to podcasts.
Mike:No, I never even heard one, and I just knew that I was in the podcast world and I even got invited to be part of women's podcasts and you were like I don't think so. And then that's when I asked you and you were hesitant and then I just said you know what? What I do best, I pray. I said I'm just going to pray and let the Lord move his heart, or not? I remember that clearly.
Mike:And it did so. Here we are two people. We really didn't have any experience doing something like this. Louisa is a talker.
Luisa:And everybody that knows me knows that I am, and everybody that knows me knows that. You're not Okay.
Mike:We had no equipment. No technical skills and we had no idea about how to go about this.
Luisa:So who's the one that led us and guided us? God, only God.
Mike:And here we are, a little over four years later, heard in six continents, 27 countries, over 275 different cities, none of which we could take credit for, because we don't monetize, we don't advertise and we don't spam.
Luisa:Amen, it has truly been God, growing it organically, placing it in front of those he wants to hear it.
Mike:So we do thank our listeners, as many of you have been gracious and you've shared it with friends or on your social media page.
Luisa:It's really about God's word and using it to help us all grow in our walk with the Lord. Amen.
Mike:And we have an interesting topic for you today, and it's on the subject of emotions. But before we get started, let's pray.
Luisa:Heavenly Father, thank you for the desire to pray. I am so grateful for the gift of prayer, understanding that nothing is possible without you. We thank you for the opportunity to put out another podcast episode. Please open the eyes and ears of everyone that you choose to listen and give them complete understanding of what your word says. Please help Mike and I to honor and glorify you in Jesus's name. We pray.
Mike:Amen. Well, that was emotional.
Luisa:It sure was.
Mike:We all have emotions. Wouldn't you say that, babe?
Luisa:Absolutely, we sure do. Some of them are positive, some of them are negative, some of them are healthy and some are unhealthy, and some of them are righteous and some are sinful, some are extreme and some have various degrees.
Mike:So let's look at some common emotions, babe. We have some that are on the positive side, and one of them would be loving, which we're going to cover today. Another would be compassion. Again, we're going to cover that today and accepting those are all positive feelings. Affectionate that might be under loving, but affection for sure.
Luisa:And then we have negative emotions Loving but affection for sure. And then we have negative emotions and they are fear guilt despair.
Mike:That's a big one.
Luisa:And stress is even a bigger one. Okay, too many people in the world right now are so stressed, that's for sure.
Mike:But one of the things that I had never considered before was not only the actual emotions but the body sensations that we feel when we go through this kind of stuff. So again, there are positive ones and there are negative ones. So some of the positive ones are you can have like a warm, fuzzy feeling in your body. You could be tender, you could be releasing, and that would be like sometimes when you kind of get a load off of yourself, you just ah, just like a breath out, you know, to kind of gather yourself.
Luisa:And I think that's for that sense, body sensation you can always. I know for me that whenever I'm in that space of my body feeling like that and I go to God in prayer, I feel that releasing that's the key. I get that, and then we have negative emotions and one of them is you're drained.
Mike:I've heard that. And then we have negative emotions, and one of them is you're drained I've heard that from you before Completely drained.
Luisa:You feel suffocated and you feel heavy Like the world. You're carrying the world and everybody's problems on your shoulders.
Mike:For real Right and many of the various degrees of emotion that we see. All of them can cross over several categories of positive, negative, healthy, unhealthy and righteous, sinful.
Luisa:And, contrary to what some Christians believe, god didn't create us to be unemotional. It's perfectly normal to have emotions, but it's how you respond to these emotions that make the difference.
Mike:That's what determines whether the emotions are positive or negative, healthy or unhealthy and, most importantly, for the Christian, righteous or sinful.
Luisa:So let's start with God. In Malachi, chapter 3 and verse 6, God speaks to this and declares For I, the Lord, do not change.
Mike:Now some people have incorrectly understood this to mean that God cannot have emotions. But God is not some stone-cold, stoic being. He sure is not One of the things that happens. And when people who are not Christians, they think of God as he's portrayed, as an unfeeling God Because they don't know who he is. They don't, but nothing could be more further than the truth. He does express emotions, but he doesn't do it like humans do. He's not haphazard, right? Emotional people tend to be kind of all over the place and God's emotions are always righteous and holy they're never, ever, sinful, ever.
Mike:So in reality, god is the perfect example of an emotional being. It is his very nature to possess emotions. He feels intently about the circumstances of this world.
Luisa:So let's look at seven emotions that God expresses in the Bible.
Mike:And the first and the greatest of all his emotions is love 1 John 4.16 simply states God is love. In 1 John 4 and verse 7, it says let us love one another, for love comes from.
Luisa:God and in the Gospel of John, chapter 3 and verse 16,. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Mike:Amen. In all three of these verses, the Greek translation for the word love is agape. It's a word that means selfless, unconditional and universal love. It's often used to describe the love of God for humans and the love that humans have for God in return.
Luisa:So agape is a type of love that involves self-sacrifice and loving others without conditions.
Mike:That's a tough love, so let's use marriage as an example In this type of love, in a marriage, which is really the type of love that you should have in a marriage, it means putting your spouse first.
Luisa:And not expecting anything in return, right.
Mike:So what happens is I have to look at you and I have to say that you come first. When I love you in this way, I'm putting all of your needs before mine. I'm basically laying my life down for you. Christians believe that agape is the highest form of love, and that's Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. That's a great example of agape love, right? Some people call it Calvary love or divine love. Yeah, bob Cook calls it Calvary love, and Calvary refers to the cross.
Luisa:So, whatever you call it, it is different from any other love.
Mike:Amen.
Luisa:Another of God's emotions is joy.
Mike:Now again, in the Gospel of John, chapter 15 and verse 11, jesus declares that the basis of his joy is obedience to the Father, and he reminds us that we can have the same joy if we do the same, because Jesus was always perfectly obedient, right, he never committed a sin.
Luisa:Now most people have joy come from earthly pleasures but not Jesus, and his joy was in doing the will of his Father. Amen.
Mike:So now he talks about obedience, and obedience always produces joy. Let's look at the cross. Jesus certainly didn't want to go to the cross, not in his flesh. Right when he talked in the garden of Gethsemane, he asked his father listen, lord, if we could do this some other way, and think about his emotions in that moment.
Mike:Yes, yes. He was like so wreathed and yet he said not my will, father, but yours, his obedience, that obedience of going to the cross, sacrificing himself for us, that is the joy that he had. He actually felt joy over that. I really think that's amazing. He also had another emotion. It's the emotion of compassion.
Luisa:Matthew, chapter 9 and verse 36,. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Mike:Jesus really felt bad for the people. So this example of compassion, it shows Jesus's humanity.
Luisa:Now he's fully God, but he's also fully man, and in his earthly ministry he had human emotions.
Mike:He did and, as we said before, god is immutable. Now, what immutable means is that he doesn't change in any way and part of that attribute is impassibility and he does not experience emotional change in any way.
Luisa:Right. God doesn't get weak Right and he doesn't sin.
Mike:And he does not experience emotional change in any way. Right God doesn't get weak Right and he doesn't sin.
Luisa:Right, and he's not stopped by his emotions.
Mike:Right A lot of times when we get in our emotions, it'll grind us to a halt and it will just ruin everything. It'll make us compromise yeah, it'll make us sin.
Luisa:It will make us angry. It will make us become these ugly people and that never happened for him.
Mike:Now that was Jesus, but God the Father shows compassion in Exodus, chapter 33 and verse 19. And it says I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, so God, the Father, has compassion on those he chooses to save his elect. This is an interesting verse, and when you hear him say that that he'll have mercy on whom he has mercy and compassion on whom he has compassion, it's really just a sovereign choice and we can't really explain why he does this Right?
Luisa:Because he is not swayed by anything or any circumstances.
Mike:Right. He had this plan from before time began, so he already knew, before he even created the earth, who he was going to save, who he wasn't, and that's a difficult conversation for some people to have. Oh some people to hear yeah, now, if you really think about it, there really is no explanation for it. No, you're asking. Well, I can't really reconcile that.
Luisa:Well, you, can Some things you can't, I agree. And then another emotion that is attributed to God is jealousy.
Mike:Most Christians have a hard time with this one, because in human form jealousy is a negative, unhealthy and sinful emotion. But in Exodus 34 and verse 14, we see the context is much different for the creator of the universe, For you shall worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Now, while not always directly stated, the concept of God's jealousy is often associated with his desire for exclusive devotion and loyalty from his people.
Luisa:God is rightly jealous when worship, praise, honor or adoration is given to idols.
Mike:Now idolatry is rampant in today's world, just as it was way back in Exodus. So obviously idolatry is a problem. It's a sin to worship anything other than God, and that's anything, anything.
Luisa:Okay, people think it's a statue. No, anything that you put before God is an idol.
Mike:Exactly Now, god is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to him, and that's worship, praise, honor and adoration. So here's an emotion that the world associates with God, and that's the emotion of anger or wrath. Romans, chapter 1 and verse 18, states it perfectly, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.
Luisa:So this is an example of righteous anger. We also see it in the Gospels, where Jesus clears the temple on two occasions.
Mike:Right. Righteous anger is something that we can't really relate to too much in this world. Righteous anger is something that Jesus really exemplified. Now, God is angered by sin. It is a righteous response by a holy God.
Luisa:And there is no sin in him. Therefore he can have no part of it.
Mike:Yet in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 9, we see that God does not have a wrathful intent, for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us to be saved.
Mike:Amen, it's only when we're rebellious that His anger is felt and we're really always talking about His response to sin. If you look at pretty much every time there's anger or wrath in the Bible, he really always talking about his response to sin. If you look at, pretty much every time there's anger or wrath in the Bible, he's always talking about sin. He's always looking at what the Israelites did, what the enemies of the Israelites did in the New Testament. Whenever Jesus had righteous anger, it was always about the sin of others, Like when he cleared the temple. That's a good example. He walked in and he just said you're desecrating my house and he had every right to do what he did and there was no sin in that. You really have to use that as an example.
Luisa:God also feels the emotion of hatred. Psalms 5 and verse 5 says the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers.
Mike:And Psalm 11 in verse 5 expands on that. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. God just hates sin baby he does I mean? There's really no other way about it and it is man who commits sin. Therefore, god hates anyone who consistently sins and does not repent.
Luisa:Amen, and the last one we have is God feels the emotion of sorrow.
Mike:The shortest verse in the Bible is in John, chapter 11 and verse 35. When Jesus got to the grave of Lazarus, the Bible simply states he wept.
Luisa:And there is no question that God is sorrowful over the state of mankind.
Mike:His tears in this context were not about the death of Lazarus. He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the grave. He wept out of grief for a fallen world. He was a man of suffering and pain. So that covers a basic view of God as an emotional being. Now, one thing I want to point out if you look at the negative emotions of God, it's always all about sin. He's angered by sin, he hates sin and sin grieves him, amen. Now let's look at man as an emotional being. In Genesis, chapter 1 and verse 27, the Bible states that God created mankind in his own image. Therefore, we are emotional beings, just like our creator.
Luisa:Though at times our emotions are righteous, unfortunately, in many instances our emotions are negative, unhealthy and sinful.
Mike:So you always talk about emotions. Emotions aren't a problem. An emotion in itself is not sinful. Even a negative emotion it's not sinful. It's our actions that are meant to respond to our circumstances. Those are simple.
Luisa:Right. So if you think about whenever we go through anything and if we are led by whatever emotion it is, that's the outcome that you're going to get.
Mike:Exactly. You know Whether it's positive or negative, right? So our reactions always need to be appropriate, and it's sin that causes us to have inappropriate emotions. Again, it's always about how we react. When something negative happens, we don't have to react in a negative way. It takes a lot to react positively to a negative situation, but with God, all things are possible, absolutely. Here's another thing about human emotion. Do you ever notice that we have a lot of emotion over things that have limited value, yet we have too little emotion over things that have a lot of value, and this can be such a distorted view of life. So let's look at this as an example, and I can relate to this one. You have a favorite sports team. They're playing in a big game and they either won or they either lost. Okay, so if they won, you're going to be like, yeah, and you've been that and I've been that, okay, I've witnessed that. And then, well, if they lose, you are not, I'm miserable.
Mike:Right, your emotion is like so it's a big reaction of either joy or sorrow.
Luisa:The emotion might last several days, though Okay, I know that or sorrow, the emotion might last several days though okay, I know that Sometimes it does.
Mike:If it's a Super Bowl win, well, it could last months, okay. But think about this Now you're watching TV and the news reports a natural disaster somewhere in the world. There can be little or no reaction. We just kind of move on to the next news story.
Luisa:Right. As humans, we tend to show more emotion when we have a personal connection to something that happens, as opposed to when we are not personally connected.
Mike:I totally get that, babe. Think about this there's been a couple of things that's happened in the last week or two. One of them is the California fires. Now we look at that, that's devastating. Right, all right. Now, if you are in one of those houses or right in the middle of that fire, that's going to give you or you lose, a house. Yeah, you're going to have an emotion that's going to be so strong. It's going to be such despair, such sorrow, such devastation.
Luisa:Yeah.
Mike:But if you're not living there and you live on the East Coast like us, it really has no effect on us. Now we can feel bad about it and say you know, that's pretty awful.
Luisa:I feel bad for those people.
Mike:Let's pray for them, but we're not going to have that same emotional reaction as a person who has a personal connection. And just two days ago there was a plane crash over Washington DC.
Luisa:That was devastating, that was really devastating Now.
Mike:If you're a family member waiting at the airport to pick up your loved ones that are going to get off that plane and they come in and bring you into a room, you're going to have an emotional reaction Again. It's devastation Now for us. We look at that and, yeah, it's shocking, but we don't have that same level of emotion, so how we are connected to it really plays a big role in the type of reaction that we have to something. So we saw how God responded to the seven basic emotions we spoke about before.
Luisa:So let's look at the same seven emotions from a human's perspective.
Mike:Okay, the first one is love. Now, as we said before, god's love for us is agape love. Again, it's a self-sacrificing love. There's no conditions placed on it.
Luisa:Right and we are to expect nothing in return.
Mike:Nothing.
Luisa:Mark, chapter 12 gives us the two greatest commands according to Jesus. Verse 30 says Love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind and with all of your strength.
Mike:That's a lot. Now can we really say that we do that? No, no.
Luisa:No.
Mike:Are we really sacrificing everything to love him? Absolutely not. No. Do we love him without any condition, or are we looking for something in return?
Luisa:Human nature is always looking for something in return.
Mike:Right, god owes us nothing. Right, absolutely nothing. He already gave us his son to save our souls. Again, we can't make any deals with God. It's not like well, god, if you give me this, I'll give you this. Okay, that doesn't work. Remember, we talked about that.
Luisa:We talked about that a long time ago not making any deals with God.
Mike:We just have to give him unconditional love, and when we do that, that's when God really comes out and brings the blessing on us. Now, continuing on in verse 31, it's the second part of that verse. It says love your neighbor as yourself. We are to be kind, compassionate and generous to our neighbors. The Greek translation is philia, which is brotherly love. It's a different kind of love than agape, but it's no less significant. So who is your neighbor? Ah, that's a question. They asked that question in the Bible, Right? Okay, they debated it with Jesus and the answer is quite simple.
Luisa:Your neighbor is anyone you encounter, regardless of their differences from you.
Mike:Amen. Now, this can be a believer, or it could be an unbeliever. All right, so we're not talking about just a select group of people.
Luisa:Your neighbor is everybody, and we're not talking about your neighbor that live next door to you only.
Mike:No, this is anybody in the world that you encounter Now as a sinner. We're basically lovers of ourselves. We sure are. We think highly of ourselves and we treat ourselves well. Now, occasionally we may do this for others, but how often do we keep others a step below us? Okay, God would never do that.
Luisa:He sacrificed his only son to save our souls, and how often do we place a condition on our love for our neighbor? You know, that's family, that's a family member, a spouse, yeah, yeah.
Mike:We often are thinking about what we can get in return, or what's in it. For me, now, the bottom line is this Love with a condition is not love, it's a transaction.
Luisa:Can you read that again please?
Mike:Love with a condition is not love, it's a transaction. Amen, amen.
Luisa:So next up is joy. Joy is a lasting emotion that comes from a relationship with God and a belief that he will fulfill his promises Right.
Mike:Now, a part of that relationship and belief is obedience. Just like the Lord Jesus, obedience to God's word always produces joy, so joy is often confused with happiness, but they could not be more different.
Luisa:Right. Something good happens, you are happy, amen, you know. Something bad happens, you are sad, oh yeah.
Mike:Now the Apostle Paul preached contentment in any circumstances. There is always a great joy in contentment.
Luisa:Right, because a lot of people don't understand. Like I talk to a lot of women, I just want to be happy, but happy is so fleeting okay, it is. It's just you could be happy at the moment. And then what?
Mike:You get hit by a car.
Luisa:Okay.
Mike:Then you're not happy anymore, right.
Luisa:The Bible commands in Philippians 4 and verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again I say rejoice.
Mike:Rejoice. Obedience to God's word will always produce joy. Now, joy is not dependent on good circumstances.
Luisa:Right Joy is rejoicing in all circumstances.
Mike:Right Now. Remember we had cancer, babe. All right, like five or six years ago I got cancer and then a year later Louisa got cancer. Now that would ordinarily be cause for a lot of distress.
Luisa:And it was. I'm not going to lie, you don't want to ever hear.
Mike:When you hear that word, you have a moment okay. But what happened was is we had such a belief and a trust in Jesus Christ that we were joyful, whether he healed us or not.
Luisa:Because our relationship and trust in God, we had joy despite our circumstances right.
Mike:Now, it doesn't mean we weren't numb to all the possibilities, but we were able to turn it over to Him and trust in His will for us.
Luisa:And that was just a choice that we had to make at that time. Amen. A passage to live by is James 1, verses 2 through 4.
Mike:Count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Luisa:Amen. So let's move to compassion. Galatians, chapter 6 and verse 2 states Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Mike:Now Christ made a living out of bearing our burdens? He sure did. He took the full brunt of it on the cross. So Jesus showed an endless compassion, even to his enemies. But what about us?
Luisa:At times we are indifferent to other people's trials, to their suffering.
Mike:Are we sometimes unwilling to bear another's burdens?
Luisa:Yes, we all have a selfish side of us. For whatever reason, we don't feel like helping, or we are tired or we can't be bothered, right.
Mike:How many times have we had that conversation?
Luisa:Absolutely Many times.
Mike:It's really rough and we have to catch ourselves. We have to get convicted by the Holy Spirit, because God always wants us to bear one another's burdens. Even our own, between the two of us. We have to be there for each other and with our brothers and sisters in Christ whenever they have a burden. We can't go hide. We can't go say I'm really not ready for this now.
Luisa:Not today. I have a headache, I'm exhausted, I don't want to talk, god never says no, Amen.
Mike:Next is jealousy. Now, human jealousy is often destructive, leading to strife, division and sin. It can be a fear that someone will take something you want or have.
Luisa:So again, like with joy, we are called by Paul to be content no matter what or what. You don't have what or what you don't have. James 3 and verse 16 says for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists there will be disorder in every vile practice.
Mike:Right Look, jealousy destroys marriages, it destroys families, friendships, work environments and even destroys churches.
Luisa:It is a sin that leads to too many other sins.
Mike:And sometimes it leads to violence and it could also destroy you on the inside because it'll give you anxiety. So we really have to understand that jealousy can be very destructive. Now staying on the negative side one of the most common human emotions is anger.
Luisa:James 1 and verse 20, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Mike:God's anger was righteous, and it was a righteous anger against sin.
Luisa:So when somebody says, yeah, I'm angry, but it's a righteous anger, because I feel that it's a righteous anger and it's not what the word says, it's not righteous anger.
Mike:It's not. It's sinful anger, because man is sinful and, while we are able, it's not righteous anger. It's not. It's sinful anger, yes, because man is sinful, and while we are able, on occasion, to feel righteous anger, the majority of our anger is always sinful.
Luisa:Right and we get mad at the smallest of offenses. Think about that.
Mike:Somebody looks at you the wrong way and you get mad at them and you say well, they made me angry, Right. Okay, they made me angry, right, okay, so you have to look at all the things that go on in our life.
Luisa:And even marriages, babe. A lot of times you hear sometimes people say, well, he triggered me.
Mike:What does?
Luisa:that mean he didn't trigger you. You're in sin Right Because of the way you responded.
Mike:Right, we can always react in a kind way. Proverbs 19 and verse 11 says good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Luisa:Right. So anger often leads to saying things we ought not to say.
Mike:It can lead to violence and sometimes even murder. That says that in the Bible, right? So how many times did you lose your temper this week?
Luisa:Can we?
Mike:count. I know I can't count, it's count less.
Luisa:Was any of it righteous, though? No, none.
Mike:Okay, we always think our anger is righteous, but it rarely is.
Luisa:We're always justifying our anger instead of repenting from it Right, and anger goes hand in hand with hatred.
Mike:Amen1, john 2 and verse 9,. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness.
Luisa:Right. You cannot love God as long as you have hatred in your heart.
Mike:And people do that all the time. They profess this great love for God, but meanwhile they hate their next door neighbor or they hate their brother and sister in church or they hate their coworker.
Mike:They hate their family. There's all kinds of stuff going on in the world and we think that God's not watching all that, right, and it leads to the sin of unforgiveness, right, because we're hating somebody. All that is is unforgiveness. We're not really loving God and people have an outward hatred for others. That's scary, but at least you know it when somebody's hating you, okay. If they come up and say I hate you, all right, you might not like it, but at least you can respect it, but all right.
Luisa:Who goes around and says that they just have silent hatred?
Mike:Right.
Luisa:Nobody's bold enough to go up to somebody and say I hate, you Hate on the down low Right. Well, think about this all right.
Mike:So when people have this outward hatred, let's look at President Trump. All right, President.
Luisa:Trump All right.
Mike:So that's an outward hatred. Half the world hates President Trump. They're not shy to say it. They're not holding back.
Luisa:And, but they, they say behind a computer.
Mike:They well, no, some of them just say it out loud. There's plenty of people out loud that that say I hate him, I hate him. So how can you love God and hate somebody at the same time? You can't.
Luisa:Right. And how many times do we say we hate someone? It rolls off our tongue so easily.
Mike:It does so again. We talked about hating outwardly, we talked about hating inwardly, and Proverbs 10, 18 speaks of such people. The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.
Luisa:So next time you say you hate someone, consider what the Bible says and repent Amen.
Mike:And we'll conclude with sorrow. Now, this is another interesting one for humans, because it can be an emotion of pain. Now, sometimes we try to bury sorrow. Well, somebody dies and you put on a good face, you know, you stiffen up and take things like a good soldier.
Luisa:But this is so unhealthy, it's very unhealthy.
Mike:And it could make you moody, sometimes, it could make you angry, but the Bible says that sorrow is good for you. In Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, in verse 3, it speaks to the benefit of sorrow. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad, right Times of sorrow can lead to something more positive. It can actually help us grow in wisdom. It also might mean that God allows us to experience sorrow in order to draw Him closer to Him.
Luisa:And you can even use it to find joy in Christ.
Mike:But think about this how many times does something bad happen, but God has a purpose in it? So you might be down about it, but maybe you get through the time and then maybe a couple of months later you're thinking about it and all that time God was just trying to draw you closer to him, making you to depend on him. So all that sorrow that you had, it wasn't wasteful. Depend on him. So all that sorrow that you had, it wasn't wasteful, but it was just God using that sorrow to draw you closer, to help you to find joy in Christ. So, by all means, we should allow ourselves the emotion of sorrow because, believe it or not, it will bring us to a place of peace.
Luisa:So Babe, what is the solution to negative, unhealthy and sinful emotions? For Christians, this is not a secular strategy.
Mike:The main thing is to remember that experiencing negative emotions is normal, but the Bible encourages us to turn to God in times of distress and seek comfort in his promises. So here are a few things you can do to turn things around, and we're just going to kind of list them and give some comments on it. So the first thing you could do to get your emotions in check is to always go to God in prayer.
Luisa:Right, because prayer is always the most we can do.
Mike:So people get kind of freaked out by prayer. Prayer is nothing more than communicating with God through conversation. Openly express your emotions to God and ask him for guidance and strength to overcome the negative feelings.
Luisa:Listen. There have been many occasions where my emotions were so high that I was yelling out to God.
Mike:I'm pretty sure he hears me.
Luisa:Okay, and you've heard me, Okay, yeah.
Mike:Number two read and study the Bible. So important. Here comes our usual reminder about God's word. It's a solution that fits many issues when we say read and study your Bible. The solution to every issue in the world is in the Bible, either directly or indirectly.
Luisa:Right, and I think that a lot of people need to establish a habit to read their Bible. Exactly, it's just like praying people need to establish a habit to read their Bible.
Mike:Exactly, it's just like praying. If you establish a habit of praying, it'll come more naturally to you, right?
Mike:If you establish a habit of reading and studying the Bible. All these issues that you see and read over and over again are bound to come up in your life, and you'll know that there's a solution in there. Now, if not, you have your phone, google Bible verses. So my go-to site is called openbibleinfo, and when you open that website, you type in the emotion that you have, or whatever it is that you want to find out about and there's all kinds of stuff that's going to come up for you.
Luisa:And you can also research any subject and get a list of scriptures that pertain directly to what you are going through.
Mike:Amen, so reflect on the verses that offer comfort, hope and encouragement in challenging situations and I love this one, babe.
Luisa:You know I do Practice gratitude. Take your situation and find something, anything to be grateful for.
Mike:Now that could be a challenge sometimes, but if you really sit back and think about if you pray and you-.
Luisa:You remember God's promises you remember God's promises.
Mike:Because you read and studied the Bible, you can find something to be grateful for. So you have to focus on the positive aspects of life and just thank God for his blessing. If you start off like that, God, thank you for blessing.
Luisa:Because there's always something to be thankful for and it starts first thing in the morning.
Mike:I think people get a little hung up there. They're looking at a situation that seems so dire but there is something to be grateful for.
Luisa:But I think that people get very complacent with what they have and they don't realize that they have a lot.
Mike:They have a lot.
Luisa:And they take it for granted.
Mike:They do.
Luisa:So there's no space for gratitude, because you have this and you know you have it and it's yours. So gratitude, why am I going to be grateful? I don't know what. To be grateful for your life? How about that? You're breathing, yes.
Mike:Number four seek fellowship. So important, very important Connect with other Christians for support and encouragement. So when you're in an emotional state, the best thing you could do is be around other Christians for support and encouragement. So when you're in an emotional state, the best thing you could do is be around other Christians. Number one they could pray for you. Number two they could encourage you, they could give you support. They might say to you hey, I go through that too. I can tell you how many times that men have come up to me and are emotional about something or bared something to me and I could relate to it immediately. I could say to them yeah, I've been through that, I understand.
Luisa:And I think that we have to establish good relationships. In order to establish good relationships, you have to have great listening skills, because when people come up to you, people just want to be heard. They don't want you to fix anything for them, right, people just are just venting because there's something that's going on in their life. And if you listen deeply, okay, that's when you can encourage and you can point them to Christ and help them in the situation that they're in.
Mike:Just be with them in their emotion. A way that you can connect with other Christians is, of course, a come to church frequently. So if you're around other Christians, you should try to participate in as many things as you can in your local church. This way, you're constantly around the body of Christ instead of unbelievers. You could do it by phone, you could do it by email, you could do it by text. I have a group of men that we constantly encourage each other. We send each other texts hey, praying for you in the Lord. Today I get a text like that. You know how that like uplifts me, and I get stuff like that all the time.
Luisa:I do too.
Mike:It's important. I think it's really important. You could send something to somebody, but then you could receive something to somebody.
Luisa:Because sometimes you could be in a space of despair or you can be sick. I've been there, Right, and I get a text from somebody saying I'm praying for you, or they send me a song, something, and it's like, oh, God only knows, and those yeah because you, those people might not even know what you're going through, but yet you got a text from them and it like applies to what you're going through.
Mike:I think that's great. It's good to have a set of people that you've talked with them, so I really encourage you to seek fellowship with other Christians, and I think number five, confession and repentance.
Luisa:Let's face it, the majority of our emotions are sinful babe.
Mike:If I yell at another driver with road rage, that's a sin. Sometimes I might do that like if I'm driving and I'm praying and somebody cuts me off, I might just get mad at them in the middle of my prayer. Do you know how bizarre?
Luisa:that is yeah.
Mike:So that's really bizarre. And then I have to like say God, what am I doing? God, I was just praying for safe travels on the road and somebody cuts me off and then I get mad at them and now I have to sit there and confess to God. Oh, that was a sin, God, I'm really sorry, Right.
Mike:God help me. So you confess that sin, you ask him for help in turning from it. It's so weird the way God works sometimes. And then the last one we have here is to seek professional help. Now, this doesn't apply to everybody, but it can be an option for some people. Sometimes our emotions get beyond our control.
Luisa:And you need that professional help.
Mike:Yeah, if emotions are significantly impacting your daily life, consider guidance from a certified biblical counselor, not a Christian counselor, not a Christian counselor. Christian counselors sometimes they use secular methods in combination with Bible.
Luisa:And definitely not a secular counselor, definitely not just anybody.
Mike:Now a certified biblical counselor will help you see things through the lens of the Bible and possibly refer you to a different level of help. So you might need medical help. You might need some things that are going on for you that you would need to seek a higher level of care than a certified biblical counselor, but that option is there for you, yeah, so now, finally, here are some important points to remember. So number one is acknowledge your feelings, don't suppress your emotions, but bring them to God in prayer.
Luisa:And the bringing them to God in prayer. I'm telling you I've been there and when I finish and I get off my knees, I walk out of that room. I feel such a lightness because, I really just surrendered my burdens to the Lord, like he tells me to do. And number two is don't judge yourself. God understands your struggles and wants to help you through them. You have to know this understands your struggles and wants to help you through them.
Luisa:You have to know this, okay, you have to know that God is for you. You have to know that God loves you. You have to know that God knows what you're going through. Okay, and sometimes you feel that you're going through whatever you're going through all alone and nobody knows, and you're in this dark place, but God is just there, waiting, saying come to me my daughter, come to me my son. The word is very clear those who are weary and burdened, come to me and I give you rest.
Mike:Right, he will never leave you or forsake you Never. So the last one is to trust in God's plan. God has a plan for all of us. He ordains everything in this world. He has it all laid out.
Luisa:It's going to happen His way, whether we want it to or not Right, and believe that God is working for your good, even in difficult times, especially difficult times. It is only Christ that can draw our righteous emotion in us.
Mike:And it is only in Christ that we are redeemed, emotional beings who can pursue and cultivate godly emotions.
Luisa:Right. Without Christ, we don't have a chance. Let's pray.
Mike:Oh Father, god, we thank you that you created us in your image. We thank you that, through the redemptive power of your Son, our sinful reaction to our emotions can turn to a reaction that is pleasing in your sight. Help us to turn from our sin, that we may honor and glorify you In the name of our Savior. We pray Amen.
Luisa:So that wraps of our Savior. We pray Amen. So that wraps up episode 50,. Babe, we thank you for listening. We invite you to leave us a comment or a question by going to our website at jtepodcastorg.
Mike:That's jtepodcastorg.
Luisa:Click on the Contact Us page and we will respond within 24 hours. If you don't personally know us, introduce yourselves. We would love to get to know you from across the states or around the world.
Mike:Now, while you were there, you can subscribe to the podcast and receive an email the minute a new episode is published. You can also find all of our previous episodes, and we invite you to find one that resonates with you.
Luisa:And, as always, please support us by sharing this podcast with a friend or on your social media page.
Mike:Now till next time. We wish you God's blessing as you navigate everyday life in a sinful, fallen world.
Luisa:May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
