Is it true that “Some days are better than others”? I do not think a day in itself could be a good one or a bad one, because every day is a new day with lots of opportunities to learn, obstacles to overcome and blessings to enjoy. Some days are not better than the other days but that is how many of us feel. Each of us swing on our emotional roller coaster, one day we are high in the skies and the other day we hit the rock bottom. As humans we are created as emotional beings and emotions are some of the greatest gifts of God. However if we do not understand the proper place of emotions in our lives it is very easy to become slaves to our own emotions and feelings.
Today we have many volumes of books written on “emotions” and how to handle them correctly. On the one hand we have those who suggest suppression of emotions, they believe being indifferent to our emotions or ignoring our feelings can actually help us overcome the problem of ups and downs and will give us the stability we are looking for. On the other hand we have those who believe emotion is everything, life is all about how you feel. According to these people all that matters is to “feel good”, as long as you feel good about something just keep doing it and the moment your feelings change you stop it and move on to the next thing that makes you feel good.
As humans we are created as emotional beings and emotions are some of the greatest gifts of God.
We live in a world that seeks thrills, excitement and “feel good” experiences. We have become so addicted to our feelings that even when we go to a church we are seeking more for thrills than for truth. Don Matzat notes that “Many modern Christians seek a church that provides a positive experience rather than one that stands for doctrinal truth. Preachers today in order to appeal to these “modern” Christians, offer principles for experiencing the Christian life rather than the doctrinal presentation of sin and grace.” I sometimes wonder if we are turning our churches into theme parks, because even though we say that biblical preaching is important, we often find that human feelings and the so called spiritual experience has assumed the center stage in many churches.
“You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.”- Paul Buck
Our God is not just a God who confines himself to the ecstatic experiences, he is found at every step of life whether you are feeling excited or in extreme pain. Our feelings are dependent on external happenings, we feel good when our desires, dreams and wishes come true but we feel sad when things happen contrary to our plans and hopes. Here are some important facts about feelings (emotions): 1. Feelings are not logical; do not try to rationalize your emotions. 2. Feelings are fickle; they can go from one extreme to the opposite in a minute, do not make decisions based on your feelings. 3. Emotions can cause you to lose perspective and can destroy the balance of your life.
As Greg Anderson said “You can’t expect to prevent negative feelings altogether. And you can’t expect to experience positive feelings all the time. The Law of Emotional Choice directs us to acknowledge our feelings but also to refuse to get stuck in the negative ones.” Paul Buck writes “You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.” Paul describing his own life journey says that his life is filled with sorrows, yet he always rejoices (2 Cor 6:10). Feelings do not necessarily reflect facts nor are they based on reality; they are based on our perspective of the situations around us. Let us understand that we are all (men and women) emotional beings, we poison our lives when we either suppress our emotions or are driven by them, but we perfume our lives when we learn to handle our emotions well.
When Jesus took Peter to the mountain top experience where Peter witnessed the transfiguration, Peter was so excited that he actually proposed to settle there on the top of the mountain. Peter said to Jesus “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters…” (Matt 17:4). Jesus did not fall into the goose bump philosophy of life, he immediately took the disciples to the crowd, to the reality of daily life and he continued to walk with them. It’s sad that our generation only looks for God in some emotionally high spirituality, feel good sermons and experiences. Our God is a God who walks with us every day of our lives, whether you feel good or not remember God is with you and this is a biblical fact not just my personal feeling.
It’s a tragedy that our generation only looks for God in some emotionally high spirituality, feel good sermons and experiences.
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
