As I prepared for my message (54:20) this past week, I gave a lot of thought to the role of emotions in the Christian’s life. How much do we rely on them? What weight should we give them in assessing our spiritual health? Is the presence of deep emotion the sign of deep spirituality or is it possible that we can experience a false sense of maturity and well-being depending on our understanding of the role they play in our lives?
I came across a great article from The Biblical Counseling Institute called, The Danger of Relying on Emotions, that helps provide some perspective. Here’s an excerpt:
Christians are emotional creatures; it is part of God’s human design. And clearly life events and external circumstances have impact and affect our feelings. But there is a great difference between being affected and becoming entangled.
Emotion is a critical function alerting us to danger and threat. Like an alarm system, emotions can stimulate discernment and response to a person or situation. Emotions also provide an element of our joy and contentment in life affirming the pleasures and gifts so abundantly provided by our Lord.
But the Christian life experience should be one of stability and consistency. There is tremendous danger in riding the waves of ever-changing experience. As our relationships and circumstances rise and fall, there is a truth and Presence that is stable, solid, and constant. Christians must guard themselves to the distractions and disruptions of life by looking repeatedly to Christ and finding order and structure in His Word.
Continuing in Galatians 5, Paul wrote:
“You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough” (Gal 5:7-9).
I’ve often talked about the pitfalls of “spiritual highs” that result from spiritual “mountain-top” experiences. As someone wise told me long ago, “It’s not how high you fly but how straight you walk when you hit the ground.” Emotional highs from retreats, camps, mission trips, etc. can’t last. After about 40 years of going to them, I think I feel qualified to say that with authority. Getting back to the real (broken) world always hits us in the face like a bucket of cold water, shocking our system from the isolated time we experienced with Jesus. Often, rather than trying to walk straight in a crooked world, people attempt to replicate the high experiences over and over. Like an addict after their first “hit”, they need the high to feel normal…to feel spiritually healthy.
Christ never promised us the highs in life. Peter, James, and John only got one mountain-top experience with Jesus in Mark 9. Most of the rest of their lives was dependent on living according to the Word they had been given from Jesus while experiencing great trials and hardships. How desperate would they feel if they had to re-live the transfiguration experience over and over to know God was near?
I read recently from a devotional called Moment with God. Through it, I was reminded how the Israelites often felt abandoned by God in the wilderness. It spoke of an “ebb and flow” of God’s manifest presence in the life of Israel. It struck me because Karen and I often talk of ebbs and flows in marriage when we are counseling young couples. Could it really be similar in a relationship with God who is perfect? The argument for it is that we are not perfect so that the relationship can be “strained” by our sinful actions. Nevertheless, because of God’s great covenant love, the relationship remains in-tact. There is no “divorce”. Yet, there are times we might wonder where God is. Why has He not “shown up” when I needed Him?
“At first sign of hardship or confusion,” the author writes, “the Israelites assume God has left them….Although [they] doubt God’s presence through the book of Exodus, His protection and provision is so obvious to us, since we have the whole story: God was near Israel at all times. His presence and care was constant though evidence seemed sparse from the perspective of the Israelites.”
I was reminded then that someday God will dwell among us in all His glory (Revelation 21:3) but even now, His covenant with Himself guarantees that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). This, I stand on in faith, regardless of how I feel. Regardless of my emotional state.
What holds me on solid ground? My emotionally encouraging experiences? No. They are good and I love when I experience them but, frankly, I experience extreme emotional highs and lows (mostly lows) when I’m watching my Mississippi State Bulldogs play football. Either way, it doesn’t last. Instead, what grounds me and often leads to sustained joyful emotion are three essential doctrinal truths from the Word:
The Doctrine of Justification tells me who and Whose I am. Because of the vertical relationship eternally secured through that truth (Romans 5:6-11), my horizontal relationships can be honest and free because I need no approval from those relationships. I’m free to give and sacrifice because I’ve been justified. I’m free to love and be loved. I’m free to enter into emotionally uncomfortable situations. I’m free to struggle, knowing that when all else fails, that vertical relationship holds. Even though this can be extremely challenging, that is the source of great peace.
I also experience great joy when I reflect on the Doctrine of Sanctification because that tells me I’m not who I’m going to be but I’m not who I was! I am always becoming more like Jesus, through good and (especially) through bad circumstances (James 1:2-3, Romans 5:3-5), because it is HE who is doing the changing in me (Philippians 2:12-13). That gives me great emotional joy that is protected from circumstances.
Finally, I experience great joy when I think about the Doctrine of Glorification because I know that the troubles in this world and the weakness of my own flesh won’t last…they’re not the final word in my life (Romans 8:18). One day, my sanctification will be made complete and I will be like Jesus, pure and holy, and able to experience the purest of emotional highs for the rest of eternity (1 John 3:2).
It is the Truth of SCRIPTURE, alone, that provides lasting joy. Where emotions can run all over the map, it is the Word of God that lasts forever (Matthew 24:35). It is in keeping my eyes on Jesus, my Rock and Fortress (Psalm 18:2), that I can experience emotional stability today and lasting hope for the future.
