My Emotions Serve a Purpose

In Mark 12:29-30 I read, “The most important commandment is this . . . ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'” (NLT)

Jesus says God doesn’t want me to just kind of love him. He wants me to love him passionately, “with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength” (Mark 12:29-30).

There is emotion in the words of Jesus? He wants more than my head knowledge. He wants an emotional relationship with me.

Here are some things I need to keep in mind about emotions:

God has emotions. Yes, God is emotional. He feels joy, grief, anger, and pain. He even feels hatred toward sin. I too have emotions, because I’m made in God’s image. If God wasn’t an emotional God, I wouldn’t have any emotions.

My ability to feel is a gift from God. Emotions make me human. My emotional ability allows me to love and create. My emotions help me to be faithful, loyal, kind, and generous. My emotions help me experience all the feelings that are attached to the good things in life. My emotions may not always seem like a gift, but even negative emotions have a purpose.

There are two emotional extremes to avoid. One extreme is emotionalism. Emotionalism says the only thing that matters in life is how I feel, not what I think or what’s right or wrong. With emotionalism, everything in life is based on emotions; emotions control life.

The other extreme is stoicism. Stoicism says feelings aren’t important at all, and the only things that matter are my intellect and my will. Christians who follow this approach downplay their emotions.

The truth is, God gave me my emotions for a reason. And he wants me to worship him with all my heart as well as my mind, soul, and strength.

In summary, I must love the LORD my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. God doesn’t want me to just kind of love him. He wants me to love him passionately. There is emotion in the words of Jesus? He wants more than my head knowledge. He wants an emotional relationship with me. Here are some things I need to keep in mind about emotions: God has emotions. He feels. I too have emotions, because I’m made in God’s image. My ability to feel is a gift from God. Emotions make me human, and allow me to love and create. Emotions help me to be faithful, loyal, kind, and generous. They help me experience all the feelings that are attached to the good things in life. My emotions may not always seem like a gift, but even negative emotions have a purpose. There are two emotional extremes to avoid. One extreme is emotionalism, the only thing that matters in life is how I feel, not what I think or what’s right or wrong. Everything in life is based on emotions; emotions control life. The other extreme is stoicism. Where feelings aren’t important at all, and the only things that matter are my intellect and my will. Christians who follow this downplay their emotions. God gave me my emotions for a reason. And he wants me to worship him with all my heart as well as my mind, soul, and strength.

God's laws are not burdensome. They can be reduced to two simple principles: Love God and love others. These commands are from the Old Testament. When I love God completely and care for others as I care for myself, then I have fulfilled the intent of the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament laws. According to Jesus, these two commandments summarize all God's laws. So I need to let them rule my thoughts, decisions, and actions.  When I am uncertain about what to do, ask myself which course of action best demonstrates love for God and love for others.