Feelings are a part of God’s good design. Generally that is laborious to persuade ourselves of when our feelings are so visceral that we are able to’t see previous them. After we are hyperventilating due to nervousness and panic or once we are overwhelmed with grief over the lack of a cherished one, it may be troublesome to acknowledge the reward of these emotional responses as a result of they really feel so undesirable to us. Nonetheless, I’m satisfied that Scripture speaks to our expertise of feelings by displaying them to be lively responses of affection which are made within the current, passive reflections of the previous, but in addition that they need to be flavored with current assist and future hope from God.
Feelings Are Lively Responses
There may be an apparent connection between issues which are occurring in our expertise of the world and the feelings we now have. They’re responses. They don’t solely encounter us, however we’re actively responding to the world round us. That is evident in our expertise in addition to in Scripture. Genesis 43 recounts Joseph’s emotional response to seeing his brother Benjamin. The Scripture says, “Joseph hurried out as a result of he was overcome with emotion for his brother, and he was about to weep. He went into an interior room and wept there” (Gen. 43:30). Discover Joseph’s response. He weeps. He doesn’t chortle or run away in worry. It’s because Joseph’s coronary heart is actively responding to the occasions round him. It isn’t random or disjointed however linked to his coronary heart and the way he’s understanding his world.
This expertise is lively and within the second. Nonetheless, it doesn’t solely operate inside the second itself. Feelings all the time pull the previous into the current.
Feelings Are Passive Reflections of our Previous
Our experiences don’t occur in a vacuum, that means that the explanation that we predict and understand our lives the best way we do is basically due to our previous. Think about the identical story. Though Joseph’s response to Benjamin is an lively response to one thing occurring in actual time, it additionally passively displays Joseph’s previous experiences. The rationale he weeps as an alternative of operating, laughing, or changing into comfortable isn’t fully rooted within the current as a result of Joseph himself has a historical past with Benjamin. Be aware additionally that this solely occurs when he sees Benjamin and never the remainder of his brothers. He had previous experiences together with his brother Benjamin (which have been a really distinct set of experiences from these he had with the remainder of his brothers), reflecting a mind-set about him that moved Joseph in that specific second. The Scriptures present us each the lively and passive responses within the textual content. It says that Joseph was “overcome with feelings” (CSB) or “deeply stirred” (NASB).[1] One of these language helps us see that these feelings, actively expressed within the current, are additionally constructed as reflections of the previous, and within the second, they’re skilled as extra passive. This is part of God’s good design for emotional responses in human beings. We have been meant to reply intuitively and instinctively to our world; feelings are a big a part of this response. That is a part of the fantastic thing about feelings and why they’re among the most life-giving components of our lives as creatures.
Now contemplate the issue this identical God-given capability brings with it when sin enters the equation. We dwell in a sinful world with sin urgent in on us from all corners of our expertise, and we’re additionally sinners with a coronary heart that’s fallen and responds to these experiences in sinful methods. Because of this our feelings are patterns that we now have much less management over within the second, in addition to lively coronary heart responses, which is why we’d like Christ to reorient our feelings, as God is our current assist and our future hope.
Feelings Ought to Be Flavored with Current Assist and Future Hope from God
God’s good reward of feelings will not be meant to be stagnant. We’re not made to be caught in our previous or beholden to our restricted perspective within the current. In Scripture, we’re known as to permit for God’s character and guarantees of future hope and safety to affect, transfer, and have an effect on our feelings. Think about Paul’s phrases in 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “We don’t want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, regarding those that are asleep, in order that you’ll not grieve like the remainder, who haven’t any hope. For if we imagine that Jesus died and rose once more, in the identical approach, via Jesus, God will convey with him those that have fallen asleep.” Paul’s level is that, though it’s applicable for the grief to return to the Thessalonians as a result of they need to genuinely love and miss their brothers and sisters in Christ who’ve handed away, their grief ought to be flavored by the reality of the gospel.
Emotional Complexity
Feelings are necessary in counseling as a result of they’re integral to life, as God created us to be. As we counsel folks with Scripture, we should do not forget that their emotional responses say one thing necessary about their relationship to God, others, and their world. Nonetheless, the complexity of our feelings additionally implies that we should always not leap to conclusions about what is going on in these responses. Jesus’ emotional response in John 11 is an effective instance of this complexity.
John writes that Jesus sees Mary and the Jews weeping over Lazarus’ loss of life. In verses 33-36, he writes, “He was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. “The place have you ever put him?” he requested. “Lord,” they advised him, “Come and see.” Jesus wept. So, the Jews stated, “See how he cherished him!”” Jesus weeps. Jesus’ coronary heart actively responds to others’ weeping, and he, in flip, weeps. Jesus’ coronary heart and its response will not be sealed inside that second of time. It says, “He was deeply moved.” The folks join His tears with His prior expertise and love of Lazarus. Nonetheless, it isn’t merely about Lazarus or Mary. Studying Jesus’ tears as solely about Lazarus doesn’t account for the full complexity of Jesus’ emotional response.[2] Jesus’ love was greater than that; and so is your counselee’s.
In counseling, a recognition of complexity ought to all the time result in a gradual and affected person curiosity. We ought to be affected person, serving to counselees to discern what is going on and guiding them on the right way to orient these responses to God’s glory. Solely by recognizing the previous, current, and future orientation of feelings can we assist folks do that troublesome however vital work.
Questions for Reflection
- What are some methods that you’ve got helped counselees to grasp their feelings in additional deep and significant methods?
- What have been some obstacles in that work?
- How are you going to keep in mind to decelerate and acknowledge the complexity of the emotional expertise you might be listening to from counselees?
[1] Passive emotional language is used all all through Scripture to explain feelings as experiences that encounter folks in addition to language that expresses the guts’s exercise in these moments. Think about the passive use of the time period compassion within the gospels to elucidate Jesus’ emotional state (Matt. 9:36; 15:32; Mark 6:34; 8:2; Luke 7:13; 10:33).
[2] Andreas J. Köstenberger, John, (Grand Rapids, Baker Tutorial, 2004), 338-342.
