Does God Feel Emotions?

I have a great guest post for you today, from the Baby Mommas Blog. She has been a loyal reader and commenter on my blog (take note!) and she has always encouraged me, and I have always appreciated her insight. So I asked her to guest post for us today!  Make sure you check out her blog, and leave a comment of love for my guest bloggers!

 


Does God Feel Emotions?

For much of my life, I have tried to down play my emotions.  I didn’t want to feel too happy or too excited because well, there’s always that crash after such elation.  I didn’t want to be too sad or too grumpy, because well, who wants to be with someone who is sad and grumpy?  And so I have always lived my life trying to not allow my emotions to affect my day-to-day living, and isn’t that what the world teaches us?  Being too happy will result in people wondering what drug you’re taking.  Be too sad, and people wonder why you’re so miserable.

And yet, emotions are good.  Emotions are what make us just like God, created in His image:

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  (Genesis 1:27 NIV)

All through scripture, we read about God experiencing and expressing emotion.  The key difference is that God’s emotions are based on righteousness and truth.  Our emotions can be distorted because of living in a fallen world – a world that has an environment where hurts, and disappointments and lies (negative thinking) feed our emotions.  God felt love, hatred, compassion, grief and joy.

·        God loves, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16) and “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

·         God hates, “The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates,” (Psalm 11:5) and “here are six things the Lord hates,   seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)

·         God has compassion, “But he hesitated.  So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city,” (Genesis 19:16) and “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” (Psalm 145:9)

·         God grieves, “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart,” (Genesis 6:6) and “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

·         God expresses joy, “…Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength,” (Nehemiah 8:10) and “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).”

·         God rejoices, “For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you.  And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you,” (Isaiah 62:5).But God never, throughout the bible, showed anxiety and fear, because God is not fear.

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  (1 John 4:18)

In other words, if we fear, we have not been made perfect in God – because God is love.  I have long battled with anxiety, and now I truly believe that anxiety and fear is used to break down God’s image in us.  With any other emotion, or situation, we can show God’s grace and His love.  We can be angry, and yet not sin.  We can rejoice and know God rejoices with us.  We can show love, and know that God is showing His love through us.  We can be ill, poor, battling and be content and still show God’s righteousness and have trust and faith in God.  We cannot show that contentment in any and all circumstances that Paul speaks about if we’re battling with anxiety. 

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  (Philippians 4:11-13)

However, anxiety is the one emotion that distances us from God.  Why?  Anxiety is distrust, a fear, a “what-if” that moves us deeper into fear and further away from God.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

God is not fear and He did not give us fear.  That’s very different to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he sweated blood.  Jesus’ fear here was a very different experience and emotion than that of being tormented by fear and being fearful.

And what we need to do in order to counteract this fear, and grow the true emotions that God has blessed us with is to learn to trust God – even when we do feel fearful, we can still make the decision to trust God.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  (Jeremiah 29:11)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  (Philippians 4:8 NIV)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (Romans 12:2 NIV)

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 NIV)

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Thanks BABY MAMA for your insight on a beautiful loving emotional GOD.


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