Wish to learn to really feel your emotions in a manner that honors the Lord? Comply with these 6 steps to course of your feelings with God.
I began studying how you can course of my feelings in a productive manner after doing all of it mistaken for a few years.
My feelings used to return over me like a wave in a storm, jerking me off of my ft and throwing me round with none strong footing.
In my anger, I might usually say one thing I might remorse (often to the individuals I beloved most).
In my loneliness and insecurity, I might usually do one thing out of desperation (Fb made this manner too straightforward to do!).
In my overwhelm, I might usually make drastic selections that didn’t assist the state of affairs in any respect.
Meals was once my chosen response to the troublesome emotions in my life – I used to be a massive emotional eater.
- When my emotions had been damage, I ate.
- Once I was lonely, I ate.
- Once I was bored, I ate.
Similar to I used to really feel like I used to be managed by my meals cravings, I additionally felt like I used to be on the mercy of my feelings.
For a very long time, I assumed the reply was to simply shut my feelings down.
I used to be an excessive amount of, so I simply wanted to cease feeling these massive issues.
It turned out, that wasn’t the reply to information me to a more healthy place, both.
Throughout my 100-pound weight reduction journey, sure, I needed to study more healthy bodily habits like exercising and consuming extra greens, however I additionally needed to learn to navigate my feelings in a more healthy manner – a manner that acknowledges and validates them whereas nonetheless protecting Jesus within the driver’s seat.
Deliberately processing my feelings helped to:
- get me unstuck from repeating the identical dangerous cycles over and over.
- transfer me ahead, rising from my errors as an alternative of spiraling into disgrace.
- give me peace, readability, and knowledge for my subsequent steps.
- perceive my reactions and responses higher, addressing the actual roots and never simply the signs.
- expertise extra of God’s goodness, faithfulness, Fact, and compassion.
The steps beneath aren’t onerous and quick guidelines. They don’t seem to be the “proper” strategy to do it or the one manner.
They’re simply the steps I’ve practiced for years now which have helped me perceive my feelings higher, acknowledge them extra simply, reply extra compassionately, and hold God on the middle of all of it.
They contain a mix of my coaching as a Christian life and well being coach, in addition to instruments I’ve realized from counselors, authors, and buddies over time.
For me, journaling was an extremely vital device to assist me stroll by the steps beneath, in addition to speaking by them with a few very shut buddies (that’s why I designed journal pages to stroll by these steps much more in-depth, too).
It’s straightforward to skim over the phrases beneath and really feel such as you’ve checked it off your record (or not less than it’s for me!), however I extremely advocate you are taking your time and actually do every step completely. The extra you pour into it, the extra you’re going to get out of it.
Steps To Processing Your Feelings With God
1 – Put it into phrases.
It’s so vital to place phrases to your emotions.
With out slowing all the way down to truly describe them and pinpoint what precisely we’re feeling, it’s straightforward to simply get sucked right into a black hole-type vortex of overwhelm, confusion, and hopelessness.
Emotions can get actually snarled (which is sensible…we not often solely really feel one factor at a time!), however once we take the time to establish them, it creates an excellent beginning place so that you can course of them extra successfully so you may transfer on to the following steps and transfer ahead as an alternative of simply spinning, caught in the identical psychological cycle.
In the event you’re undecided the place to even begin in naming your emotions, a emotions wheel may be actually useful for this step!
2 – Search for patterns.
Now that you understand what you’re feeling, you may take a second to attempt to establish why you’re feeling that manner.
So lots of the greatest, most intense emotions in our lives are recurring.
Possibly they began manner again in your childhood and have been bolstered with each comparable state of affairs since then (like if you happen to had been bullied as a child about your weight and felt like your weight decided your value by your teen years and into maturity, feeling “lower than” others with each pound).
Or perhaps there are specific conditions that always result in the buildup of that very same emotion (like in case you are discovering your self feeling uncontrolled after your work days since you by no means really feel such as you get sufficient executed).
Likelihood is, you might need a typical, frequent response to those feelings once they floor that you could be by no means have recognized earlier than.
Recognizing these hidden and apparent patterns may give you actually useful data to get you transferring ahead.
3 – Test in in your bodily well being
The items of ourselves all affect one another – our bodily, non secular, psychological, and emotional well being.
It’s vital to concentrate to every side, recognizing the affect they’re having on one another.
In the event you haven’t been sleeping properly, that magnifies your unfavourable emotions (I do know sleep deprivation and insomnia properly).
The time period “hangry” (feeling so hungry you get offended) exhibits how frequent it’s for the bodily feeling of starvation to fire up feelings like anger and frustration.
Consider how rather more troublesome it’s to be calm, affected person, and joyful if you find yourself in ache or discomfort.
Have you ever seen the meme floating across the web describing Elijah telling God that he’s so mad and desires to die and God providing him a nap and a snack in return?
There may be a variety of energy in recognizing and assembly our bodily wants (once we can).
The identical is true for our non secular wants (spending time with the Lord, studying Scripture, stillness, and so forth) and psychological wants (recognizing choice fatigue, managing your “psychological load”, and so forth).
Recognizing these connections may give you vital data to determine a greater strategy to forestall, reply, or navigate that emotion sooner or later.
4 – See what Scripture says about that feeling
Now that you’ve got a normal understanding of the sensible items of the state of affairs, it’s time to deliver the Fact of Scripture into your processing.
Our feelings are supposed to level us again to God, drawing us nearer to Him.
Scripture is filled with examples of individuals feeling massive, onerous feelings and God responding to them with care.
Constructive and unfavourable feelings alike could be a signpost reminding us of the goodness of God, our want for a Savior, and a future full of hope that this world can’t provide.
As a extremely delicate one who has all the time had massive feelings, I particularly recognize David’s emotional processing within the Psalms.
He begins every Psalm by feeling his feelings and expressing them in massive methods and large emotional phrases (which is what makes them so relatable to me!).
Then, about midway by every Psalm, there’s a shift.
David brings in certainly one of God’s guarantees or a reference to a previous Scripture and all the tone of the Psalm shifts from despair, worry, and hopelessness to hope and confidence in God’s character.
I look to Scripture in processing my feelings to:
- discover examples of individuals feeling comparable feelings to remind myself that I’m not alone in them.
- uncover even deeper layers of God’s love and inventive methods He cares for His individuals.
- see how individuals responded to this emotion within the Bible in useful and dangerous methods.
- search for God’s steering in conditions the place these feelings had been current.
- root and floor myself within the stability of the Fact of God’s Phrase.
There are numerous posts on this web site with Bible verses on feelings (like 30 Bible Verses On Anxiousness & Worries, 37 Bible Verses About Tears and Crying, and 25 Bible Verses When You Really feel Overwhelmed) or you too can simply search the web for phrases like, “Scriptures on worry” to seek out nice examples.
Bear in mind the favored Bible tales, too – David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, Esther and the king, and so forth. Learn these tales with new eyes, searching for how God responded to every individual.
Facet word – though I love topical lists of Scriptures, please bear in mind to all the time contemplate the context of the verses and the Fact of the Bible as an entire. “Cherry-picking” verses may be harmful and pulling again to have a look at the context of the verse (like who it was written to initially and why) can drastically change the which means of brief verses.
5 – Acknowledge Your Ideas
This can be a very, crucial step.
Typically our ideas may be useful, guiding us towards making a choice or giving us additional details about a state of affairs in our lives.
It’s additionally vital to acknowledge when your ideas are dangerous and harmful.
After we are fighting massive, troublesome feelings, we regularly get swept away by our inside voices which can be superb at whispering lies to us.
Have you ever ever made a mistake and ended up pondering one thing like, “You’re such an fool. Why did you try this?”
That is only one instance of how the enemy assaults – with disgrace (there’s a distinction between guilt and disgrace and it’s so vital to know it).
The enemy loves to make use of our ideas to hurt us. When he can flip us in opposition to ourselves, we find yourself preventing his battle for him, beating ourselves up and distracting us from our God-given functions.
God’s voice brings readability, knowledge, conviction, development, and peace.
The nearer I’ve gotten to the Lord over time, the extra acquainted His voice of compassion has grow to be.
In case your ideas are full of condemnation, disgrace, confusion, and hopelessness…that’s an excellent signal that some ideas must be taken captive and made obedient to Christ.
It’s straightforward to slide into pondering in “autopilot” mode. It takes intentionality to acknowledge these small lies as they sneak into your thoughts, however it’s so well worth the effort.
6 – Ask for the Lord’s assist in navigating that emotion
By no means underestimate the ability of prayer.
Typically, after I want God’s assist essentially the most is after I neglect to ask for it.
So, that is your reminder.
As you course of troublesome feelings, ask God for His steering, knowledge, and readability in navigating this emotion.
Discover, I didn’t say to “eliminate that emotion”.
Typically, our purpose is to simply cease feeling the uncomfortable factor, however so usually that emotion is attempting to provide us details about one thing.
Attempt taking a look at that emotion like a signpost as an alternative – what might it’s telling you? What might God be telling you?
Ask Him!
He could also be:
- drawing you away from a sin in your life that’s separating you from Him
- uncovering a lie you have got been believing
- displaying you a manner to answer a bodily want of your physique
- …or a lot extra!
Your prayer right here doesn’t need to be something fancy.
Typically, my prayers have been so simple as, “Assist me, Lord” and generally I’ve journaled pages and pages of prayers pleading for assist with sure feelings.
The vital factor is simply to speak to Him about it.
…and don’t neglect to hear for His reply!
Processing Your Feelings With God Printable Journal Pages
Click on the button to obtain a PDF printable of the Processing Your Feelings With God journal pages with over 17 journal prompts I take advantage of to course of my very own feelings with the Lord.
