Pastor's Desk
May 7, 2006
WE EXPERIENCE MOST of life through our feelings. God has created us to be emotional beings that can experience love, joy and peace as well anger, sorrow and fear. There are a full range of positive and negative feelings which flood across the landscapes of our lives as we react to thoughts, circumstances and other people. For the most part we cannot directly control what we feel emotionally at any given time. To some degree we can train ourselves to control our outward expression of what we feel but basically when you feel sad you feel sad and when you feel happy you feel happy. We can indirectly control what we feel to the degree that we direct our thoughts, plan the events of our lives and decide in advance how we will respond to the people we meet. But in the moments of life experience we will feel what we feel. An example of how emotions work is described by Jesus himself: "I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." (John 16:20-22)
How then can we direct our emotions to love God better? Simply by filling our thoughts with the right ideas, images and information about God. We must hear the truth that “… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Then, fully taking on board what that means we can respond. “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) As our understanding of God’s goodness and greatness increases our emotions will follow. We can even train our emotions in relation to everything that happens to us by understanding this about God: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
As Christians who live in this world we will still occasionally experience some of the unpleasant feelings that accompany sorrow, anger, and anxiety but we do not need to camp there continuously, but we can by the grace of God draw on his resources to bring us back to experience the birthright of the children of God: love joy and peace. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God…And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:1-2, 5)
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Love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and with all your strength.’
This page was last updated on Friday, May 5, 2006