Why Did God Give Us Emotions?
Emotions are designed by God to move us to proper action. The word it self says this: e-motion. You have thousands of thoughts each day. However, you only act on those that generate emotion.
How Emotions Are Generated
Most of your emotions are the result of the interpretations you make of events taking place around you. The only exceptions are emotions that are conditioned emotional responses and emotions that caused by a disturbance in the normal functioning of the brain or central nervous systems as might be caused by injury, illness, mood_altering drugs, or inherited genetic abnormalities. The normal way in which most of your emotions are generated can be diagrammed as follows:
Event
Interpretation
A part of your mind constantly evaluates events in terms of your needs and wants. This process of assigning meaning to events is usually done automatically and unconsciously. If a need or want is or may be satisfied, you experience the various positive emotions such as joy, excitement, or satisfaction. If a threat is present you experience anger (ranging from irritation to rage) or fear (ranging from apprehension to panic). If you encounter a loss you experience sadness, grief, or depression depending on the nature of the loss. Of course, events are often complex. They can satisfy some needs and frustrate others. This is why we often experience mixed emotions.
Are There “Bad” Emotions?
Nothing fashioned by God is evil in itself. Creation is good. The error we make is that we identify evil with things rather than with the misuse of things. All good things must have divine controls and be used for their divinely intended end or they become a curse and good becomes evil. Living outside the realm of freedom permitted by god results in bondage, not freedom. It is my belief that if we could truly view the events we encounter as God does, our interpretation of events would always generate emotions that are appropriate for the situations we are in. Unfortunately, we live in a broken world. One of the results is that we all have various beliefs and ways of looking at events colored by lies. Like Peter, we often look away from our Savior and become frightened by the storm raging about us and we sink (Matt. 14:25-31). One of the things I’ve found with my counseling work is that the various problems people have, whether it is with relationships, self-image, success, kindness or whatever, is usually the result of thinking that reflects a worldly rather than a Christ-centered view. I believe this is one of the reasons that Satan is called the “father of lies” (John 8:43).
Healthy Emotional Management for Christians
Popular self-help books often state that it is important to be “in touch” with your emotions. Unfortunately, this often means that it is important to be more emotional or use emotional reasoning. The healthy management of your emotions involves the following four steps:
- Accurately identifying the emotion you are experiencing.
- Accurately identifying the need or want that is generating the emotion.
- Evaluating the beliefs that are contributing to your emotional response. Are they based on worldly thinking or biblical thinking (requires knowledge of scripture and prayer — for major issues it may also require discussion with mature Christian friends).
- Developing a plan that meets the need or want in a way that is in accordance to God’s plan.
When your emotional response is being driven by worldly thinking do the following:
- Search the scriptures for key verses that challenge the worldly beliefs driving the emotion.
- Pray in a direct and concentrated manner, identifying the worldly beliefs that hold you captive and ask God to change your heart and mind.
- Discuss your situation with at least one mature Christian whom you trust.
I have dealt with each of the above topics extensively in my two books, Overcoming Anxiety, and Anger: Taming the Beast.