Take 5 Minutes for God-Session 2

- Dealing with Emotions and Feelings

All of us have big feelings and there are so many things we must deal with and one of the hardest things we have to face head on is our very own feelings. I would like us to understand that feelings and emotions are not something we as people just deal with. We read in scripture that God was moved, Jesus wept, and the Holy Spirit is grieved.

Let’s focus on the Holy Spirit for a moment. Often, we do not think of the Holy Spirit as much. He’s kind of an afterthought. I want you to understand something; the only reason the Holy Spirit is mentioned third in the trinity is because He was the last person of the trinity to be revealed to us! He is not less than the Father or the Son. He is fully as powerful and wise and compassionate. He is fully God and that piece of God lives in you and me when we become born again Christians!

Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Grieve means to cause great distress or to feel grief for or because of something. In the Bible the word grieve primarily means to feel deep sorrow, pain, or emotional distress. And the same word is used for humans in distress as well as God’s or the Holy Spirit’s response to human actions.

We could say that we are conceited when we think the world revolves around us or we think everyone hates us or is against us. The world does not revolve around us. It revolves around the SON! See what I did there? We think that no one else could possibly understand what we are feeling, but that is so far from the truth. If anyone knows the deep emotional trenches, we get stuck belly crawling though, it is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the trinity understands our deep emotional distress. So why not take our emotions and feelings directly to HIM who understands and cares?

Often, we find our emotions and feelings cause us more trouble than they are worth. When we are not centered in God and unfortunately sometimes when we are, we lash out and try to defend ourselves or try to make whoever hurt us feel just as bad before consulting God and waiting for the Spirit’s gentle prompting and that never turns out well. We usually make a rotten situation stink even more.

I read somewhere that we should be excited when God gives us frustrating people to deal with and that we should see it as a divine challenge from the Father for an opportunity for us to let the Holy Spirit transform us into the likeness of Jesus. We want to be more like Jesus and let’s face it, Jesus was surrounded by frustrating people, and he loved them still. If we want to be closer to Jesus, we have to live more like Jesus. God uses everything and the Holy Spirit will use these tough frustrating people’s rough edges to smooth us out. And be honest, we are frustrating too. The goal is to see people the way Jesus does. If you’re like me, you like challenges. So, the next time you encounter someone frustrating, get excited, you have a challenge to show a little bit of Heaven on earth as you love that frustrating person anyway.

Let’s look at Galatian 6. In Galatians 6:2 Paul says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” But then in Galatians 6:5 it says, “For each one will have to bear his own load.” Seems like a contradiction doesn’t it, but let’s break it down and look at which words are different and get to understand the Greek people’s mindset. Do we bear their burden and not bear their load? To better understand the Greek’s mindset, we need to first understand to bear someone’s burden means we empathize with them. We feel their pain with them. One could say we grieve with them. But if we bear their load, that means we take responsibility for their life and their decisions and their actions. That is not our role that is God’s place. We are to sit with people in their dark times but not take responsibility for them.

We don’t even want to feel our own emotions and we are supposed to feel with others! But isn’t that what God does for us? The Holy Spirit literally lives within us and feels with us. Whether another person is right or wrong, we can bear the burden, but we do not have to carry their load. They are responsible for their own decisions and actions and the only one capable of bearing the load is God. That is why we are told to give Him all our problems and all our cares, because yes, He cares for us, but because He can carry the load.

So again, why aren’t we taking those hurt feelings and deep emotions to the one who can carry them? If we can do our best to give God our hurt before we speak, before we act, before we lash out, our regrets will be few. And keeping in mind, we are to live godly, what does God think about us? I often wonder if God hates sin, why did He create me who would sin? The Bible tells us God hates sin and that it is sin that separates us from Him, but He still created each of us in the womb, knowing we could not be perfect, knowing we would do things that would grieve the Spirit, knowing that we would carry feelings and loads we shouldn’t.

Preston Morrison answered the question best, “Because God’s never-ending love for you trumped even His immeasurable hatred of sin.” Do you get the depth of that? He knew what we would be capable of and He hates every one of our sins, but the eternal love He had for us even before He fashioned us in the womb was even greater than His hatred of our sin. And we are talking about a greatness we cannot comprehend. So, if God knew we would do things to grieve Him and yet loves us more than what we do, isn’t that how we should see and treat others?

I understand that people are not going to understand me completely. I understand that not everyone is going to like me. I understand that people are going to say and do things that hurt me deeply, but can’t I love them more than the things they are doing? I’m not saying to curl up with a snake and not expect to be bitten, but can’t I see that snake from a distance and understand it has a purpose and love it despite it being venomous? Those people, those hard emotional moments, are smoothing out our rough edges and giving us a chance to see people the way God does. They are giving us the opportunity to love regardless.

How we respond and treat others says more about our hearts than theirs. Our mindsets must be on things above and if we can try to see things the way Jesus does and take the beating even when we do not deserve it, our goodness will outshine the bad without ever even having to say a word. Feel your feelings, bear others’ feelings, but don’t get stuck in that dark place, give the load to God and keep living the way He has called you to and you will find you will be better than ok.