Emotional Truth
For as he thinks in his heart, so he is.
Proverbs 23:7
When truth enters our heart, it immediately stimulates an emotional response. Only in the heart does our mind, emotion and will come together in holistic unity. We have little or no direct control over our emotions. We cannot willfully change how we feel, but we do have control over what we think and what we choose to believe. Our emotions are primarily a product of our thoughts. How we think and what we choose to believe affect how we feel.
Suppose your company is laying off personnel. You have been a faithful employee for years and believe the current downsizing won’t affect you. On Monday, your boss says he wants to see you Friday morning at 10:30. At first you may assume that you will be laid off and become angry. Then your mind goes back and forth about other possibilities. You feel anxious because you don’t know the truth, and now you are speculating. By Thursday you have become convinced in your own mind that you will be laid off tomorrow, and now you are depressed because you feel hopeless and helpless. In four days you have felt angry, anxious and helpless, and none of those feelings have any basis in reality. They are all a product of your own thoughts.
Friday finally arrives. As you enter the office, you are greeted with applause by the management team, who inform you that you have been promoted to vice-president. How would you feel now after hearing the truth? If what you believe or think does not reflect truth, then what you feel does not match reality.
Notice how the writer of Lamentations feels as he mentally recalls negative circumstances: “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me” (3:19). He believes that God has driven him from light to darkness (see verses 1-6). He feels trapped and doesn’t believe God hears his cry for help (see verses 7-8). Not only that, God has led him astray, pounced on him like a wild beast, and pierced his heart with an arrow (see verses 9-13). He has become a laughingstock among his peers (see verse 14). All these negative circumstances and perceptions have left him bitter and without peace (see verses 15-18). His soul has become downcast because he mentally entertains all these dismal thoughts.
Suddenly, his whole countenance changes: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (verses 21-23). There has been no change in his external circumstances; what has changed is his mental process. He has recalled the truth about God. It would have done no good for someone to say he shouldn’t feel that way about God, because he couldn’t really have changed how he felt. He could, however, change how he has been thinking—and he did. When he chose to believe the truth about God, his emotions conformed to reality.
It isn’t others nor the environment that determines how we feel. We are emotionally impacted by how we mentally evaluate the circumstances of life and by what we have chosen to think and believe.
a few questions to consider:
What is the connection between faith and feelings?
In Lamentations 3:1-14, how does the writer express his feelings to God? How does his perceptions leave him bitter and without peace?
What the writer realize in verses 21-23? How does this change his emotional state and his outlook on life?
What are some times that your feelings toward others didn’t match reality because what you believed about them wasn’t true?
How should the truth impact you emotionally as you meditate on God’s Word?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.