The Benefits of Emotions

 

Thoughts and emotions are not the enemy of our spirit or of the Spirit of God. God puts His desires in our heart, and uses negative thoughts and emotions as red flags to alert us to unmet needs and unresolved conflicts in our life.

As we take these issues to the cross, we gain God's perspective on them, and His wisdom and truth on how to overcome or to fulfill them, until His peace rules in our heart.

The word "emotion" comes from the Latin word "exmovere" which means "to move out". Our emotions motivate us to feel, and then to do something about them.

Emotions energize us, express how we feel, arouse our passions, spice up our life and restore our soul. Living without emotion is to live in a mental world of clinical, analytical thoughts without expression.

Embracing our emotions is healthy and fulfilling. Denying them is clinical and unhealthy. We block off a part of our self that is very much like our God, who exhibits emotion in so many ways.

Usually, an emotional person is empathetic, not weak; compassionate, not unstable; child-like, not childish. Emotions are very vital to our psychological and physiological well-being.

Emotions influence our attitude about our self, our world and other people. They also impact our actions. We think thoughts and then feel feelings.

Our personality influences our emotions and our emotions affect how other people perceive us. Owning our feelings without blaming them on other people is a healthy activity which allows us to effectively control them and to submit them to God's Holy Spirit to perfect them and to make them more like His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Prayer:

Father God, unto You I lift up my soul. My soul often grieves because of the cares of this world. Only You know how to best renew my mind with Your Word, restore my emotions to true joy and peace, and return my will to following after You.

You are my heart, and my soul rejoices before you. You set my feet to dancing the dance of joy, and I acknowledge You in all of my ways. We attest to the fact that all glory is due to Your name. You alone are worthy of all of our praises (Ephesians 3:4; Psalm 25:1, 29:2).

Thought for the Day:

Our soul is our personality. It contains our thoughts, our choices and our emotions. Faith brings light to our soul, and helps us to think before we speak, so we do not trip over our own words.

Understanding Our Mind - Part 2

Analyzing Transactions in Our Soul

Once we realize that our subconscious mind controls many of our thoughts, word and actions in our present life, we can come to God for healing of the wounds stored in that miraculous filing cabinet. The simplest and most efficient way to uncover the stored memories in our subconscious is to pay attention to the conversations in our mind.

We are not going crazy. These are not usually demonic voices or multiple schizophrenic personalities. These conversations are simply the interaction among our Inner Parent, Adult and Child (PAC). As we analyze these transactions or conversations, we soon see a pattern. We learn to identify the message, which our three ego states are trying to communicate to us.

We are usually so busy that we neglect our soul. Therefore, we need to make time to listen to these transactions. Keeping a journal is the easiest way to decipher what our subconscious mind is attempting to bring to our conscious mind. Once we learn to identify these messages, journaling will no longer be necessary, because we will readily recognize what our soul is telling us.

Start by asking questions such as:

1.) What is bothering me? The issue may be recent; however, sometimes we do not know the source of the issue, because it lies in our subconscious mind and has its roots in our past.

2.) When did this start? Maybe this is a recent issue, or it could have started in our infancy or youth. Looking at photo albums may give us clue to its origin, or accessing memories from our subconscious mind that God’s Spirit brings to our conscious mind. 

( www.theophostic.com )

3.) Where did it start? At home, school, church, neighborhood. And with whom did it start? Parent, relative, neighbor, teacher, friend or our friend’s parent.

4.) Is the issue physical, emotional or psychological? Do we feel unwarranted shame or fear because of something someone said or did to us in the past? Does our negative self-talk come from things someone said to us and we believed? Did Satan plant a lie in our past that we believe, and which is fueling our negative health or feelings?

Our Inner Child may be reticent about divulging this information to us, especially if we neglected our soul all of our life. As we start to pay attention to our negative thoughts and feelings from now on, our subconscious will cooperate with God’s Spirit, as He brings these aspects to our conscious mind and heals us of the residual affects they have on our life.

Prayer:

Father God, there is nothing too difficult for You (Jeremiah 32:17, 27). You understand our thoughts and know our life from beginning to end (Psalm 139:13; Isaiah 46:10). You do not want Satan to use the words and actions from our past to cripple our present life. Give us the courage to come to You for clarity about these issues and healing from these wounds to our soul.

Thought for the Day:

It took a lifetime to program our subconscious mind to think, feel and react to life, and it may take some time for it to respond to the healing of God’s Spirit; have patience and give God your full attention during quiet spaces of reflection during your week.