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Becoming Who God Intended: A New Picture for Your Past, A Healthy Way of Managing Your Emotions, A Fresh Perspective on Relationships
"Becoming Who God Intended" answers the heart questions of those who are deeply frustrated with their Christian life: Is it "normal" that my emotional experience doesn't match up with the Bible?" Why do I feel "alive" only when I engage in habitual sins and compulsions?" Do I just have to live with anxiety, anger, shame, and depression?"
Every person's "heart life" is filled with "pictures" of reality-often false ones, says David Eckman. But as believers use the truth of their new identity in Christ to develop "biblical "pictures, they will be able to truly accept God's acceptance of them, be freed from negative emotions and habitual sins...and finally experience a life that matches what Scripture promises.
251 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
25 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 29, 2012
14th book read in 2012.
Number 63 out of 246 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htCEsg...
Number 63 out of 246 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htCEsg...
December 31, 2018
First Christian book where the author encourages folks to have an active imagination, albeit Godly pictures and stuff. He also says feelings and emotions are also very important. They aren't to be controlled but rather to be expressed.
September 3, 2023
deeply meaningful book
Isolates the purpose of emotions, deals with addictions and brings you into the meaning and life of Christ in simplicity
Isolates the purpose of emotions, deals with addictions and brings you into the meaning and life of Christ in simplicity
July 11, 2024
A lot of great stuff in here. Give it a read!
January 23, 2016
This book discusses how emotions impact our Christian living. Eckman recommends that we use pictures and visualization so that we can internalize God’s acceptance and love for us. Understanding and feeling this truth in our hearts is what will change us. We have to understand that the family influences and family behavior impacts our view of God’s family. We need to be renewed by emotionally detaching from our family of origin and attaching ourselves to God’s family. We can’t just talk about Biblical truths, we have to immerse ourselves in the truths until they become a part of our being. Use your imagination to view the world as God sees it. God’s love is a passionate, accepting love, just for you. It’s when we live out of this emotion of feeling loved and accepted that we have peace, joy, and love in life.
We are supposed to be emotional people, ones who are sensitive and compassionate, like our Father God. Positive emotions like love, joy, and peace are what we should normally live out of, but when our negative emotions, such as anxiety, shame, and guilt pop up, they should be used as a warning/reminder that we are not living out of God’s acceptance and love and need to sort things out with our Father. "Emotions do not authenticate truth, but emotions do authenticate our understanding and integration of truth" (56). "Often emotions tell us the condition of our soul and relationships before our mind often understands it. Fear, anxiety, and envy tell me that my relationship with God is unhealthy. Peace, love, and joy tell me the opposite" (80). If you are unhappy, you’re much more easily tempted to sin.
In how to deal with the negative emotions and painful situations in life, Eckman talks about how we should be" issues-driven" to prayer; prayer isn’t just for a certain time, but when we have a negative emotion, we need to take it to God until he provides peace/joy/love/patience in the situation. He ends the book by sharing two perspective to keep in mind when in suffering so that we can still live in a pleasing way to God with peace, while in the midst of tragedy: Profound and positive character change occurs through suffering & heavenly rewards are gained through suffering. When we are engulfed by tragedy, we should not use our desires to kill pain and ignore the spiritual challenge. "Blessedness is correctly perceiving suffering and responding to it in an emotionally healthy way. The person who is blessed is peaceful, but often with an area of pain within the heart. They discover that God’s comfort can go deeper than pain" (242). "The joy of God’s comfort and the pain are present simultaneously" (243).
This book had some good, new perspectives, and helped me to consider how much I need to “feel” God’s love and acceptance, not just recite it by rote memory as a fact.
We are supposed to be emotional people, ones who are sensitive and compassionate, like our Father God. Positive emotions like love, joy, and peace are what we should normally live out of, but when our negative emotions, such as anxiety, shame, and guilt pop up, they should be used as a warning/reminder that we are not living out of God’s acceptance and love and need to sort things out with our Father. "Emotions do not authenticate truth, but emotions do authenticate our understanding and integration of truth" (56). "Often emotions tell us the condition of our soul and relationships before our mind often understands it. Fear, anxiety, and envy tell me that my relationship with God is unhealthy. Peace, love, and joy tell me the opposite" (80). If you are unhappy, you’re much more easily tempted to sin.
In how to deal with the negative emotions and painful situations in life, Eckman talks about how we should be" issues-driven" to prayer; prayer isn’t just for a certain time, but when we have a negative emotion, we need to take it to God until he provides peace/joy/love/patience in the situation. He ends the book by sharing two perspective to keep in mind when in suffering so that we can still live in a pleasing way to God with peace, while in the midst of tragedy: Profound and positive character change occurs through suffering & heavenly rewards are gained through suffering. When we are engulfed by tragedy, we should not use our desires to kill pain and ignore the spiritual challenge. "Blessedness is correctly perceiving suffering and responding to it in an emotionally healthy way. The person who is blessed is peaceful, but often with an area of pain within the heart. They discover that God’s comfort can go deeper than pain" (242). "The joy of God’s comfort and the pain are present simultaneously" (243).
This book had some good, new perspectives, and helped me to consider how much I need to “feel” God’s love and acceptance, not just recite it by rote memory as a fact.
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March 17, 2008Enjoyable book but somewhat frustrating at the same time. He continually maintians that this perspective of imagination is life changing but yet he is never all that clear on what he really means by imagination. It appears that he is simply speaking of the pictures or illustrations of truth.
This book apparently is designed for readers who come from dysfunctional families and therefore struggle with their view of God as a loving father.
It is an enjoyable, refreshing read.
This book apparently is designed for readers who come from dysfunctional families and therefore struggle with their view of God as a loving father.
It is an enjoyable, refreshing read.
May 23, 2007
recommended by my roomie, i am loving this book! it's one of my current reads, so i'm not finished just yet - but i am really appreciating the insight into our God-created emotions and changing some of the negative pictures we carry around about ourselves and about God. that sounds an awful lot like psycho-babble, but it's a great read & highly recommend it.
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December 27, 2009My identity is in Christ.
March 25, 2015
Interesting perspective on how our mental pictures influence our vision of God.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews