Engaging God With Our Emotions

I was raised in an environment where emotions and religion were intertwined, but not talked about. I remember my dad crying at Easter services or almost anytime that the passion of Christ was re-enacted. I remember him getting teary eyed as he was singing some of his favorite hymns. But I never remember being taught that our emotions were markers or indicators of our spiritual status. I do not remember being encouraged to deal with the heart or to seek to understand where emotions were coming from. On the contrary I was often warned about the dangers of introspection. I was encouraged to obey and to focus on outward signs of obedience rather than the inner workings of my own heart.

Over the years I have grown in both my respect and value for the way that I was raised and also for the ways in which my upbringing led me astray. I am so grateful for the emphasis on the Word of God and on submission and obedience. On the other hand I have had to learn to listen to my heart and to bring the workings of my heart to the Lord. It is true that the heart is desperately wicked and that we can scarcely understand our own inner drivers, but there is One who does understand and He is not mute like the idols. He loves us and wants to speak with us.

He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and He wants that kind of relationship with us. When we go astray as Adam and Eve did we find that He pursues us and asks me questions like He did with them. When they sinned, something went wrong, and it showed up in their emotions. They were afraid and ashamed. God gently pursued them with questions that surfaced the problem and allowed Him to start the process of reconciliation. He knew needs of their heart and He met them there in their pain. He is still reconciling us to Himself. He is still probing and questioning, gently but persistently applying the pressure to reveal our hearts to us and to bring healing to the innermost parts.

Every human since Adam and Eve has been thirsty for God. God does not condemn us for this thirst. We are all meant to be dependent on Him and to drink deeply from Him. But every human since Adam and Eve has been foolish. Since Adam and Eve marred the image of God in us, we have had imperfect access to the Fountain of Living Water ever sense. Our approach to the fountain is obstructed. We are no longer perfectly fit for it. Now we have to labor for our food, and we have to labor for the intimacy that once was so effortlessly available to us. It is still a gift, but now we have to get it by the toil of our brow.

It is hard work to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We grow weary in doing good, and so we often turn aside from the fountain and settle for other sources of water. These other sources are feeble imitations that will slowly poison our souls, but we are drawn to them again and again. We return to them and we seek to drink from them. When the cisterns dry up, we angrily demand that the cisterns act like springs and give us what we so desperately need.

God is gracious and kind to reveal these cisterns to us, but the process is rarely pleasant. We find the water for our souls, the source for our identity, in so many illegitimate places: people, power, pleasure, position, fame or fortune. Often we don’t realize that we have been drinking from a cistern at all until it either runs dry, or someone or something comes between it and us. It is in times like this that our emotions are rapidly and forcefully engaged. These strong emotional responses are like warning lights on our spiritual dashboard. It is good and right that we should explore where these emotions come from. It is good and right that we should ask the Lord to reveal the true source of our responses. Often I find that I am lashing out in a futile effort to defend my cistern. The Lord is gracious and kind to reveal this to me when I seek Him. He reminds me where my true identity lies. Only He knows who I really am. He is the only true and legitimate source for my identity and well being. He meets me and draws me back to Him and I drink from the refreshing Fountain again.