We have been looking at five areas that all impact our ability to grow and have a healthy spiritual life.
Spiritual Life – The life lived in Jesus, in communion with God.
Basics – prayer, spiritual community, bible knowledge. Or three areas of spirituality – doctrine, affection (love) and experience.
Mental Life – Mental life includes emotional, psychological, and social aspects. It is how we think, feel, and act, and determines how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Includes education.
Physical Life – From conception to our last breathe we are physical beings. We don’t have control over much of our physical life but our choices do influence our health and ability. Exercise and diet are key.
Relational Life – Humans are interconnected. The family and community play an important role in our lives. Humans are meant to connect with others on a personal and emotional level and strong, fulfilling relationships help people build and maintain emotional health. We need people. Mentors, coworkers, friends.
Today we are looking at our Emotional Life –
As beings created in the image of God, we have many emotions that we use to express ourselves and that reveal our inner character. The challenge is to allow the Holy Spirit to rule not only our actions and thoughts, but our emotions as well. As the challenges of the summer intensify, each of us will reveal our “true self,” as fatigue and the mental exhaustion of living and working in another culture take their toll. Self control is the result of a Spirit-controlled life! Following the Way means balance in Life.
From Two Steps to Improve your Emotional life –
1. “You want to be able to choose what you become emotional about and when you become emotional.” Proverbs 29:11 – A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back.
Prov. 16:32 – He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
2. “Be able to choose how you act when you are emotional. “
1 Tim. 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Gal. 5:22-25 – 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Self control is the result of a Spirit-controlled life!
Reference – https://bigthink.com/articles/two-steps-to-improve-your-emotional-life/
There are many types of emotional skills (aka emotional intelligence). These skills: like emotion regulation, gratitude, empathy, and kindness — help you relate better to others and yourself. Feelings don’t lead us but they do impact us greatly.
Reference: https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/emotional-skills.html
As beings created in the image of God, we have many emotions that we use to express ourselves and that reveal our inner character. The challenge is to allow the Holy Spirit to rule not only our actions and thoughts, but our emotions as well. As the challenges of the Christian life intensify, each of us will reveal our “true self,” as fatigue and the mental exhaustion of living and working in another culture take their toll. Following Jesus means seeking His control of our life.
How are you doing at keeping your emotions in their proper place? They definitely have value. We were created as emotional beings. But our emotions shouldn’t be running the show.
The question we all must ask ourselves is not “Where will I be when I face the most difficult challenge in my life?”, but “Who will I be?
Thanks for joining me today. If you have thoughts or questions about your spiritual life, write me at norman@runwithhorses.net I would love to hear from you.