Alright, welcome to part 2 of the teaching I got to do about emotions.
Let’s jump back in.
So, why is it important to acknowledge our emotions?
-
It is a gateway to know ourselves and the Lord better.
If we don’t acknowledge our feelings we can’t become self aware and we put on a mask before God and before others.
Instead of covering up we need to actually sit in what we are feeling and experience the weight of that feeling, being honest about what we are experiencing before God and before others as well.
Trust me, I know the temptation to put up your false self and tell God and others that you are “fine.” To deny the emotions that you are experiencing because it’s not fun to talk about, or to avoid the discomfort you may feel if you choose to acknowledge what you are feeling. To stay feeling in control and avoid feeling vulnerable or even hopeless.
But when we do this we miss out. We miss out on truly knowing ourselves, and most of all knowing God.
How can we know his perspective on the things we feel, his heart and what he feels if we don’t embrace this piece of his likeness?
-
Acknowledging our emotions is the gateway to healing
How can we pursue inner healing and go deeper if we won’t acknowledge the feelings we are feeling?
“In our culture, addiction has become to most common way to deal with pain. Watching tv constantly, keeping busy (work addiction), watching pornography, overeating, drinking, self-medicating etc.”
How we avoid our pain: through denial, minimizing, blaming others, blaming yourself, rationalizing/justification, distraction.
These are examples of defense mechanisms that we develop when are younger to protect ourselves from things that we have experienced, that we can’t process through at that time. But as adults we can use these protections to avoid the pain and not deal with it all together.
Turning toward our pain sounds counterintuitive, but the pathway to life is through death, the pathway to resurrection is through crucifixion.
-
Acknowledging and working through our feelings is actually guarding our hearts and protecting others as well.
if we don’t check our emotions we give any emotion we experience permission to take root in our hearts. We feel things even if we are unaware of it so we need to take time to acknowledge these things.
Proverbs 4:23. Our heart is the wellspring of life, everything flows from it. When emotions go unchecked it will eventually start leaking out of our hearts, i.e. passive aggressiveness, sarcasm, unkind tone of voice etc.
We need to be aware that our emotions, (especially when unchecked) not only affect us, but our relationship with the Lord and with others.
We have an active choice in what we allow to take root/be planted in our hearts.
Will I be active and believe I have a choice to change things or do I believe that everything simply happens to me and I do not have an option to do anything about it?
-
If we can’t sit in our own emotions, how can we sit in anyone else’s without quickly placing a bandaid on them because of the discomfort it causes us to feel.
.
How do we sit with others in the in between where there isn’t an immediate fix?
Psalm 37:7 be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Reflection Questions:
Is there anything that is keeping you from embracing your emotions? Do you have any specific emotions that you often ignore or avoid?
Is there an emotion that the spirit is bringing up that he is inviting you to sit in with him? What does he want to reveal about this emotion?
How can we acknowledge/embrace this part of how we were made in his likeness and how do we use this for the kingdom?
