Status Updates From Desenredando las emociones ...

Things emotions do:
4. Elevate.

“every emotion you ever feel reflects your loves, or what you worship.”

“every point on our whole spectrum of emotions was designed to send us sprinting to our Father with words like “thank you,” “help me,” “you’re amazing,” or “oh no!” No feeling is beyond redemption. Every feeling that turns toward God actually becomes part of our worship.”

Things emotions do:
3. Motivate.

“This motivational aspect of our emotions is God’s way of helping us put our values into action.“
(…) “our emotions are constantly spurring us to further God’s purposes in our lives.”

Things emotions do:
2. Relate.

“one of the ways sincere love is shared is by emotionally entering into the experience of others. (…) If others love me, they don’t just understand my experience; they are personally moved by it.“

“Jesus’s willingness to enter into the grief of Lazarus’s sisters was an expression of his love for them. He literally mourned with those who mourned(…)”

Things emotions do:
1. Communicate.

“What you care about shapes what you feel. Your emotions are always expressing the things you love, value, and treasure, whether you understand them or not.”

“Biblically, then, the question of whether emotions originate in the mind or the body isn’t the central issue. Instead, the Bible places the focus on how emotions facilitate (or impede) our role as God’s image bearers, helping us love him and one another (or hampering us from loving). Our emotions, in all their dimensions, body and mind, are meant to function together in a way that serves his purposes.”

“A day is coming when we will never again feel sorrow or anger or fear or disgust (…)Until that day, however, it is only by entering into both the joys and the pains of God’s love for his children that we can live in honest, wise relationship with the One who made us. Only those who love the Lord enough to open their hearts to the pain in his world will be able to enter into his joy as well.”

“Here is the big idea: Our negative emotions, like God’s, play a necessary role in our lives. They tell us that something is wrong.”
(…)
“we need to understand that our darker feelings are not a curse but a gift.”