Frequently Asked Questions about Emotions

 

Why should I deal with my emotions and fears instead of stuffing or suppressing them?

By suppressing the emotions, you do not heal. Suppressing the emotions can make you emotionally numb so you do not feel any more. You may not feel sad or be crying any more but you will not feel joy either. One person said she did not feel human either. Suppressing emotions causes stress and saps energy. It is work to keep suppressing emotions. Suppressing emotions can contribute to nightmares and a nervous breakdown.

When I speak of dealing with your emotions, I am saying that the thinking that causes the emotions needs to be brought in line with biblical teaching so that the fears and other unwanted emotions go away. By example, the fear of dying can be overcome by knowing it is wonderful to be with Jesus for all eternity. A person, who loves Jesus and longs to be with Him, will not fear death. Read Phil. 1:19-23. Sometimes the unknown means of how we are going to get from here to heaven can make us wonder, but the thought of being in heaven with Jesus is wonderful. Dealing with your emotions is not deliberately thinking through the traumatic event you lived through in the past. It is discovering the wrong thinking that is causing the emotion, and then changing the thinking or the perspective on it so the emotion goes away. Find verses that relate to your fears or bad emotions. Meditate on those verses and memorize them. Verse can be found in the indexes in both of my books.

By finding out what thinking causes your fears and sad emotions, you can then learn how God wants you to think or view the situation you face. Bring your thoughts in line with God’s thoughts and perspectives on life. If you know everything is going to turn out alright every time, you have no reason to fear. Rom. 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Believing and applying this verse to every situation will help ease your fears.

More on this subject can be found in the chapter on “Renewing the Mind” in Hope for the Brokenhearted.

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