Stewarding Our Feelings to the Glory of God
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When I was a young girl playing by the pond in my parents’ backyard, I was often creating and writing stories in my head. The stories changed frequently, but the leading female always carried two consistent characteristics: she was stoic and apathetic. The only time her emotions broke through her stony appearance was when someone she loved was in danger. Why did I create her this way? Because I believed a woman who shunned her feelings was the epitome of what a strong woman should be.
But despite my stoic ambitions, I still grew up to be an emotional person. Tears brim my eyes in gospel songs, birth stories, baptisms, weddings, and sermons. I feel deeply and widely.
Though I still blush at my overflowing emotions, I don’t dislike them as much as I once did. I can see the good in them, and I’m learning what it means to let them flourish while not letting them rule me. Our feelings are a part of God’s “very good” creation and a gift to be both acknowledged and stewarded to his glory.
Our feelings were created by God.
While God declared that his work of creation was good, he declared after making man that together it was all, “very good.” When God created the world, there were no accidental drips of paint from his brush or lines he forgot to erase. Our perfect God flawlessly created the world to his liking.
Our feelings are part of God’s good creation. He created us with bodies and souls that feel and respond. We were created to experience emotions like love, happiness, and excitement. Even after the fall, our feelings still reacted in such a way that acknowledged and resonated with the righteous and good law of God that had been written on our hearts. We may feel righteous anger when justice is perverted or unattained. As believers we often feel shame and discontent with our sin. We feel grief when we are hurt or when those we love are harmed. We can feel a healthy fear of danger. These feelings that are produced in the fallenness of this world point us back to God to plead, “Jesus, come quickly!”
“Our feelings are part of God’s good creation. He created us with bodies and souls that feel and respond.”
God also put humanity’s feelings on display in the Psalms. The songbook from which we are to frame our prayers and worship showcases a wide array of human feelings. We see anger over injustice, joy of salvation, fear of enemies, and grief over loss. The psalmists aren’t condemned for their emotions but are set up as examples of how to pray and worship God in spirit and in truth. Our feelings are yet another way to glorify God with all our hearts, minds, and strength.
Our feelings have been marred by the Fall.
No part of creation has been left unscarred by the briars of sin. Like the rest of creation, our feelings are scathed by the fall of man in the garden of Eden. Human feelings can distort the truth. They can lead us to believe what is false about our circumstances or the people around us. They can be sinful, drawing us to bitter anger and jealousy. They can cause us to forget our hope and become sunken with despair. They can lead us to be happy about things we should never rejoice over.
Rather than shushing and ignoring these fallen feelings, we should pay attention to them and consider what they are revealing about our hearts. Is our worship distorted? Are we striving for something that we must trust to God? Have we adapted a falsehood that is causing us distress? Have we let our current situation cloud the hope of the gospel?
Because of the Fall, we need to bring God’s word to our feelings. When our emotions are pricked by the thorns of the Fall, we can take those opportunities to preach the truth to ourselves. We can call out to God to help us in our distress and mold any sinful feelings into the likeness of Christ. We also can talk back to our emotions and preach the gospel to them, like the author of Psalm 42:
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (Ps. 42:5-6a)
Our feelings aren’t isolated from our bodies.
But disordered feelings aren’t always a cause of sin or disbelief. Sometimes there’s a physical cause. When we aren’t sure, it’s important to talk to our doctors and consider if there’s a physical issue making us feel the way we do. We are whole-body people, and our feelings aren’t isolated from our bodies. We need to pay attention to what our emotions might be telling us.
“Because of the Fall, we need to bring God’s word to our feelings. When our emotions are pricked by the thorns of the fall, we can take those opportunities to preach the truth to ourselves.”
Sometimes preaching the truth will change our despair to joy. Sometimes we may hold lament and hope in tandem. Sometimes we may know the truth and still feel the dark emotions because of the brokenness of our physical body, but shutting away our feelings will most likely not be the answer, even when they are broken by the Fall.
The redemption of every feeling will take place when God raises us up on the last day.
This may not seem like a very heartening place to close, accepting that our feelings are at times ensnared by sin and brokenness. Yet, as believers we always have an unstained hope to look forward to, one that sin’s briar-filled vines can’t reach.
One day God will raise us up to live in the new heavens and new earth with him, where he will redeem our fallen bodies. There our tears will be wiped away and we will live in joy and peace, able to express ourselves without the tangling thorns of sin. We won’t question our emotions because sin won’t disrupt them. There we will rejoice in freedom. There we will always honor God with our feelings in spirit and in truth.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Rev. 21:1-5)
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