Emotions - good or bad?

“Anxiety does not necessarily mean you’re making the wrong decision.” = Thomas Osborne at Kiros on 11-13-09.

So often, we think with our emotions instead of our heads. And as Christians, we often fall into the trap of allowing our emotions to somehow be “God speaking” to us. When in reality, our emotions are what often hold us back from the full potential and Will of God. The feeling of fear or anxiety paralyzes us from taking action, even when it is vital to our own destiny. The overwhelming emotion of love drives us into relationships/friendships with people who may be more toxic than good. The feeling of excitement or happiness sometimes drives us to make unrealistic and unwise decisions.

Emotional based reasoning is not the way that God intended us to think. He gave us a mind to reason and take action with, and to some He gives a “sense” of peace or a “burden” when it comes to certain decision in life. Others feel that He “opens one door, while closing another”. And even more feel that the Lord speaks directly into their lives through His word or through the “still small voice”. What we ought to be doing instead of trusting our emotions to make the right decisions for us, is listening intently and looking for the way in which God directs our paths. As it says in Rom. 12:1-2, “1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” We are to be fixing our attention on God when it comes to big decisions and life altering choices.

I especially love the section in Romans 12:2 that says, “Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.” How often do we get a vision of what we’re meant to do and quickly forget about the promise of God to walk us through any trial we face in life? After discussing this issue with a few friends, I’ve found one of the best ways to keep your heart and mind focused/reminded of what He wants from us is to journal. Write it down people – that way we can go back and reference what we heard/learned/etc, so that if it’s a task that takes months or years to complete, we keep our focus and eye on the end goal.

It’s also vitally important to have a group of friends or family members that can sort through things with you. Someone we can be blatently honest with, and can ask us the tough questions like, “what’s holding you back from going after this desire?” or “what do you need me to do to help you meet that goal?”. Having encouragement, wise counsel, and support in the life changes. And it certainly is a good idea to have someone around to get your head out of the emotional cloud that so often fogs our judgment and understanding of God’s perfect and pleasing will for our lives.

I’ll leave you with this verse that should really become a life motto for us all, found in Phil. 4 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”