Daily Thought for Thursday, May 26th

May 26, 2011

Is It More Than A Feeling 

“The energy that actually shapes the world springs from emotions.”

-  George Orwell

Today’s Thought:

“Emotion is the moment when steel meets flint and a spark is struck forth.” – Carl G. Jung

Today’s Question

Have you ever stopped to consider “Feeling good and feeling bad are not necessarily opposites? Both at least involve feelings.  Any feeling is a reminder of life.  The worst ‘feeling’ evidently is non-feeling.” – Willard Gaylin

Today’s Spiritual Thought:

“By starving emotions we become humorless, rigid and stereotyped;

by repressing them we beomce literal,

reformatory and holier-than-thou;

encouraged, they perfume life;

discouraged, they poison it.”

- Joseph Collins

“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.  But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd..”

- The Bible (Matthew 9:35-36)

“Emotion: The human spirit experienced in the flesh.”

 – Jerry Tucker

We, human beings, are predominately driven, motivated and subject to feelings and emotions.  They tend to affect us and impact just about everything we do and say.

Dale Carnegie said, “When dealing with people remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice, and motivated by pride and vanity.”

According to Alfred North Whitehead, “Ninety percent of our lives are governed by emotion.  Our brains merely register and act upon what is telegraphed to them by our bodily experience.”

 So then, what role should emotions play in our spiritual life?

Scripture tells us that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul.   To love requires acting on emotional feelings.  

I think it is impossible to have a relationship with the Lord without letting emotions enter in.  However we want to be careful that our experience is more than just emotional feelings and that it is grounded in knowledge and understanding of who God is and what Christ has done for us.

I personally don’t believe we can have an effective relationship with the Lord without emotions and feelings: but at the same time I don’t think we have a real relationship with the Lord if all we have is feelings.  Faith without works is dead and a real relationship with God is going to impact more than just our feelings, it is going to affect what we do, what we say and how we live.

We as Christians need to emulate Christ and Jesus had many emotions but He also had more and so should we.

Today’s Verses:

And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

Matthew 14:14

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

John 4:23-24

Today’s Prayer:

Father, may my relationship with you be more than just feelings may it have actions and deeds that demonstrate the depth and sincerity of the feelings I have for you.