St Paul Church of Columbus

As we continue to look at the connection between spiritual maturity and emotional wellbeing, one of the ways we bifurcate the two is by ignoring our feelings.  For most Christians, there can be a resistance by ignoring anger, sadness, and fear.  Some would even go so far as to say those feelings are sinful.  Afterall, aren’t Christians supposed to be filled with joy, love, and peace?

We ignore our anger because we assume that we are not loving.  We ignore our sadness because we think to be sad is a lack of faith in God.  We ignore our fear because we believe fear and faith are juxtaposed.  Therefore, when we experience these emotions, we quickly deny them which creates a disconnect in our lives.  Our emotional wellbeing suffers.  

One of my favorite passages is 1 Samuel 30.  David’s camp was ransacked by the Amalekites.  David’s family and all of David’s follower’s families were kidnapped as spoils of war.  Everyone was angry, sad, and fearful.  David was “greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul…” (Verse 6).  Before David did anything, he owned his grief, acknowledged his feelings, expressed his emotions, and strengthened himself in the Lord his God.  He didn’t deny his humanity.  

When we deny our humanity, we push against what it means to be ourselves.  Human beings have emotions.  Jesus had emotions.  To repress our feelings is to rob ourselves of what it means to be created in God’s image.  Not only does it create a massive disconnect, but “it also deadens our humanity, instead of setting it free to develop richly, in all its capacities, under the influence of grace” (Thomas Merton).

Feelings and emotions are gifts from God.  They are natural expressions of human action and interaction.  People are not robots—so don’t try to be.  The spiritual mature and the emotional healthy own their emotions.  They use them in adequate ways to give expressions of their life experiences.  If you are struggling today with owning your emotions, I invite you to spend time in the Psalms.  Each chapter is filled with emotional discourse of what it is like to be a human following God.  

This Week’s Readings:

• Monday – Leviticus 6
• Tuesday – Leviticus 7
• Wednesday – Leviticus 8
• Thursday – Leviticus 9
• Friday – Leviticus 10

We are reading the Bible in just a little over a year!  We are now reading Leviticus. You may join anytime.  Just mark your Bible on the chapter you started and keep up with the weekly readings.

Things to Pray About:

• Facing your honest feelings
• Pray for our country and the 2024 Presidential Election.
• Pray for spiritual maturity.
• Our unwillingly absent members and shut-ins.
• Pray for comfort for those who are grieving.
• Wisdom for our church leaders, local leaders, and world leaders. 
• Family restoration through forgiveness.
• Continued growth of the faith of the people.
• Pray for understanding.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6