Day 2

We are Made in God’s Image: Sanctifying Our Emotions

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?” -Psalm 8:3-4

The shortest verse in the Bible is simply two words, “Jesus wept”. The sinless Son of

God displayed deep emotions recorded in the New Testament, whether it was grief over the death of his friend that caused him despair to the point of tears, anger that Jesus felt flipping the tables outside of the temple, or perhaps the countless times of frustration over his disciples lack of faith and understanding. The verdict is clear about Jesus and his earthly human experience. Jesus felt the vast range of emotions just as you and I do today. 

What is important to note here, is that Jesus felt all of the emotions and yet did not sin.

The joy of celebrating the birth of a newborn, he felt that. The grief of losing a friend, he felt that. The pain of the betrayal of a close friend, he felt that. The frustration and anger of dealing with the hypocrisy of religious leaders of his day, he felt that. The compassion toward the hungry and needy, he felt that. What does that mean for us? As imagers of Christ, we too express a wide range of emotions, and it was not a bad thing for those emotions to arise.

Emotions help us to navigate how we experience the world and our interactions with it. The wide array of emotions God has given us are both beautiful and powerful. Emotions are created to serve us as a gift from God, and are a way we can relate to God as his image-bearers. Often in our humanity, our unsanctified emotions can get the better of us. As with any good gift from God, our emotions are still subject to the effect of a fallen world. 

What do I mean?

Anger in proper alignment allows us to seek righteousness and justice, the kind of justice

God feels against sin. But anger outside of God’s design can lead to resentment, unforgiveness or hatred. A fear of the Lord is an expression of reverence of God’s greatness. When we experience danger or uncertainty, fear is a natural response to help us in the moment, but it is not meant to be the place from which we live. Even emotions we equate with positivity, like love, can be distorted when not sanctified in Christ. Have you been exposed to or opened yourself up to ungodly cravings that contribute to feelings of lust, greed, or selfishness? Your emotions may feel beyond your control. Have you experienced significant pain, abuse, loss, difficulty, betrayal, injustice, or harm more than any one should? Your emotions may be a means of self-protection. God sees you in that. He wants to help you and invites us to surrender all those difficult places to Him. He wants to be your safe place, your helper, and your filter.

Jesus responded to his emotions perfectly. Since we are imperfect, I think we can find the life of David a little more relatable. A man after God’s own heart, he definitely recorded a wide range of big emotions. There were times when his emotions served him and times when his emotions ruled him. What I love about David is that in all of his poetic expressiveness, he took those feelings to the Lord. He shared his highest joys and used them as springboards of worship. He brought his anger to the Lord and asked him for vengeance. He offered his grief, shame, regret, remorse, pride, injustice, lament, hopelessness, awe, wonder, joy, adoration, and placed all of them in God’s hands. David didn’t minimize his feelings, dismissing them as irrelevant or too much. He certainly didn’t seem to suppress them. He was honest as he poured out his heart to the Father and sought God’s to meet his needs as he sorted out his feelings.

Not only can we trust God with our raw, honest, unfiltered emotions, but we can trust him to help us process through them in the way God intended. God sees to the root of a feeling. He can reveal the places we may have embraced unhealthy emotions that begin to rule when they were meant to serve. He sees where we have made agreements with emotions that lead to sin instead of taking our feelings to God and allowing him to help us sort through them in a sanctified way.

Whether our emotions cause us to feel good or bad should lead us to turn to God in reverent worship. I’m reminded of the words of the Psalmist “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars… what is man that you are mindful of him…? (Psalm 8:3-4) Both the joy of celebrating God’s good gifts should point us to be in awe of God’s mindfulness of us and the deep sadness that we feel in the midst of trials and tribulations should likewise point us to witness God’s mindfulness in the midst of despair. As we fast and we let go of our comfort, those unsanctified emotions tend to rise to the surface. It may be uncomfortable. Yet it is a worthwhile opportunity to surrender those feelings to God and ask him to help you work through them. God in his love and kindness never leaves us as we are but extends his hand to help us walk more and more in the fullness of who he created us to be as his image bearers. 

The main takeaway is to not ignore the emotion that you feel. There’s no need to suppress the emotions that you experience in this life, but perhaps you can keep those emotions in check by asking, “what does God want me to be mindful of? What are current good gifts that I can celebrate God’s goodness so that I don’t because prideful or too self focused? What are my current laments that are enabling me the opportunity to further seek the presence and care of the Lord so that I do not drown in despair?” God is not unaware of what you’re feeling. He knows every deep emotion you are currently feeling and have ever felt. What if you let God form you through feelings?

Listening Prayer: Holy Spirit, is there any area of my life where I am allowing my emotions to rule me? Am I holding on to anything that I need to release to you? Where do I need to surrender my emotions to you and allow you to help me navigate and sanctify them?

Prayer: Lord, who am I that you are mindful of me? Lord, in all of your greatness I’m thankful and pushed towards awe and wonder. Lord, will you help me feel how you feel? Will you give me your perspective in all of life’s highs and lows to feel appropriately how you want me to feel, and will you use my emotions to lead me closer to you? Please remind me when I need reminding, that you have blessed me to feel. Help me to not let my feelings get the best of me. In my lowest of lows, will you remind me that you’re with me? In my highest of highs will you remind me that you are the source and giver of such good things. Lord, please help me feel emotions how you designed them to be felt. I invite you to sanctify my emotions if needed as I desire to walk in the health and wholeness you created for me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Resources:

Psalm 16:11

“You make known to me the path of life;

    in your presence there is fullness of joy;

    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Genesis 1:27

“So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.”

Proverbs 4:23

“Keep your heart with all vigilance,

    for from it flows the springs of life.”

Philippians 4:4-8

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”