Listening and Led: Emotions

What we listen to will lead us. What we pay attention to will make an impact on us. What we are preoccupied with will shape us.

Emotions. They’re loaded and confusing – especially for us women. Often, they’re not what we would expect, and they seem uncontrollable. Positive emotions bring so much pleasure, while negative emotions can effectively ruin our day (if we let them). Happiness, sadness, excitement, anger, fear, depression, sympathy… the list goes on.

As a teenager, I mistakenly thought that the way to handle emotions was to suppress them. So I waffled back and forth between denying my feelings and wallowing in them. I thought I had to completely separate my spiritual life from my emotional state.

Yet the other extreme isn’t right, either, and it’s even more tempting – to listen unconditionally to whatever my emotions tell me. I feel sad; therefore, something must be missing from my life. I feel anxious; therefore, God isn’t truly in control. I feel discouraged; therefore, I cannot handle my circumstances. I feel happy; therefore, God is happy with me. I feel guilty; therefore, I must not be forgiven.

Thinking this way means that I am being led by my emotions. But I am not to be led by them. Neither am I to deny their existence. Sometimes my emotions may be right on target; sometimes they can be completely wrong. This is why my emotions must be led by and aligned with truth - specifically, the truth of God’s Word.

Emotion: I feel sad; therefore, something must be missing from my life.
Reality: “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Ps. 16:11)

Emotion: I feel anxious; therefore, God isn’t truly in control.
Reality: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29-31)

Emotion: I feel discouraged; therefore, I cannot handle my circumstances.
Reality: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:12-13)

Emotion: I feel happy; therefore, God is happy with me.
Reality: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.” (Isa. 66:2)

Emotion: I feel guilty; therefore, I must not be forgiven.
Reality: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1)

The secret is to tap into a reality far greater than the seemingly enormous vortex of emotions. It’s like throwing back the drapes and letting the sunlight stream into a darkened room. Better yet, it’s stepping over the threshold from that dark room, into the brightness of the outside world. God does not want His daughters to live locked in prisons of fear, depression, anger, or shallow happiness. His Word holds the truth; His Word is the light that we can hold our dark hearts up to in order to discern what is right. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1)