EMOTIONALISM - EMOTIONAL HEALTH

Recently we’ve been talking a lot about Emotionalism. Someone defined Emotionalism as being overly human. What is overly human, you might ask. Extra. More than you were intended to be. Allow me to explain further.

God gave us the wonderful gift of emotions to add to the colors of our life. Like how we feel when we look upon a beautiful sunrise or sunset. That feeling came from God.

The feeling we get when the warm sun allows us to bathe in its presence. How we feel when we smell beautiful wildflowers. Looking up at the stars on a clear night. Or when we see someone hurting or in need and we are moved with compassion to offer them help.

Those are all feelings that came from God. Feeling is a part of living.

Our God is a feeling God, and those made in his image are feelers too, not robots.

But while feelings can make for wonderful servants, they are terrible gods. We must dethrone the god of feelings.

They were not given to us to rule us. When they flow undirected by God’s Spirit, they become threats to our Emotional Health.

Statistics state that 1 out of every 4 adults is dealing with some form of mental or emotional health crisis.

When we are emotionally unhealthy, we suffer from feelings like extreme sadness, hopelessness, paranoia, unusual irritability, anger, aggression, hostility, tearfulness, frequent crying, and withdrawal from relationships.

These are all signs that we are in poor emotional health. We are sick in our souls!

Poor emotional health is often displayed through 5 common feelings of dis-ease. Rejection, Abandonment, Humiliation, Betrayal, and Injustice.

If you are feeling 1 or more of these, God has a triage plan of Emotional Health waiting for you!

Emotional health is all about how we think and feel, not feel, and then think. I previously shared that our thoughts dictate our feelings.

God wants us to be Emotionally Healthy. To do that our thinking has to change!

Did you know that God expects us to train our feelings? He does!

There are several places throughout Gods Word where he speaks of us having an obedient heart.

Our hearts are the epicenter of our emotions, and God say that we are to learn to train our hearts to be obedient. More specifically the thoughts of our heart.

“As a man thinks in his heart so he is he” Proverbs 23:7

Yes, our heart has thoughts! Your heart told you to curse someone out or buy someone a gift. Your heart told you to make a gesture to someone who cuts you off or help out a stranger. Our hearts offer several life suggestions.

We can’t just address the actions; the root of the issue is our heart.

“obey God from your heart.” Romans 6:17

When we only deal with our actions, we are left with moralism, not faith in God.

Feelings are an emotional state of a reaction to a thought.

We cannot turn our emotions on or off like a tap. We can’t just stop thinking about them. That’s like putting icing on dog food and calling it cake. It’s not!

Those bad feelings we have won’t leave without a police escort.

They are apart of the original equipment that God gave us.

While it’s true we can’t choose our emotions, we can choose how we will respond to them.

Here come the Police.

We must take full responsibility for OUR EMOTIONS to obtain Emotional Health.

It begins and ends 4SELF.

1.     Self-Management – Stop talking about how you feel. Quit putting it out there.

“take no thought saying…” Matthew 6:31

 2.     Self-Aware – You have got to own it to fix it. Take responsibility

“be sure to examine yourself”  2 Corinthians 13:5

3.     Self-Moderation – Quit thinking everything is just about you. Me,Me,Me.

“don’t think more highly of yourself than you should” Rom. 12:3

4.     Self-Development – Seek to inspire and influence others. What flows through you will flow to you.

“encourage and exhort others daily”  1 Thessalonians 5:11

This is how we maintain Emotional Health. Wash, Rinse, Repeat!

Your Emotional Health will also bring better Physical Health. Controlled stress lowers your blood pressure. Managed anger decreases rapidly aging. Kindness boosts the immune system.

Emotional Health brings good Mental Health too. By controlling your emotions, you reduce anxiety. Managing your feelings builds better relationships, which results in stronger support groups.

It’s time we get Healthy… Body, Soul, Spirit, and Emotions.

Let this New You be the Whole You.

Jesus asked this question, Do you want to be made whole?

This is a Thompson Truth