Resources: Emotions
We all have them – many of us feel them deeply – some of us would like them to go away. Emotions are part and parcel of the Christian life, but how can we know when they are helping and when they are leading us astray?
There is beauty in our emotions – as we love and display joy, we are responding to God in wonderful ways. There is ugliness in our emotions – hatred and misplaced jealousy do nothing but destroy. All of us wrestle with multiple emotions day by day.
Jeremiah reminds us that our hearts are deceitful. Just because we feel something doesn’t make it true. But our emotions are important – they show us our heart – and they communicate both the good and the waywardness of human life.
How important, therefore to understand our emotions and to know how to bring our emotions to Christ, the one who felt things perfectly all the time, the one who is active in our hearts, making us more like him.
Some of us are comfortable expressing and analysing our emotions, others of us less so. In the resources below there are opportunities for us all to help each other grow.
Books
Untangling Emotions
by Alasdair Groves and Winston Smith
(Crossway)
Blog Posts
Emotions – friend or foe?
by Steve Midgley
Journeying alongside the questions of hurting children
by Karen Sleeman
A mixed life
by Amanda Naves
Media
Feeling Well: Glorifying God with Our Emotions
Audio and resources from the 2020 residential conference
Addictions
CCEF podcast episode with Alasdair Groves and Ed Welch
