I welcome as my guest writer today Lynette Duquette from Chicopee, Massachusetts. I became acquainted with Lynette through an on-line Bible Study. I admire her transparency and honesty in our discussion groups. I know you will be inspired by her frank, but Christ-like post on negative emotions, which I have cross-posted from Lynette’s website When God Says Move with her permission.

Today I want to address something I see quite often in Christianity as of late. The subject is our negative emotions. I come across posts almost daily that tell us to ignore how we feel if it seems to be a ‘bad’ feeling such as anger, depression, hurt, etc. I have been trying to wrap my brain around this and I can’t. There are hundreds of instances in the Bible that talk about our emotions. I did a web search about scriptures on emotions, and the first two pages were all about controlling our emotions. I do not disagree that controlling them is a good thing, there are many scriptures that state we should. But I was looking for actual scriptures that showed people in the Bible showing emotion!

Matthew 21:12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” (NASB) Jesus overturned the tables. He called them robbers and thieves. I think we can all assume He wasn’t smiling when He did it. He didn’t pat them on the head and say “Oh, it’s okay.” He got angry! Anger can be justified.

John 11:35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus wept and was deeply moved. His friend had died, and I believe he had also wept over their unbelief. (ESV) There is obviously a time and place for negative emotions.

Luke 22:44 “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (ESV) This is an actual medical condition in which someone feels such great agony it causes their blood vessels to burst and their sweat mixes with blood. In Matthew 26:38 it says Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” (ESV.) Jesus felt such sorrow, it felt like death to Him.

So why, when someone comes to us with their sorrow, their anger, their sadness, do we not validate them? “You shouldn’t feel like that” is one of the most hurtful things you can say to someone. They may have every right to feel that way! Are we trying to produce Christian drones who walk around with no feelings? Why? So others will think we have it all together? That is not living an honest life. It is not living in reality. Can our emotions be misdirected? Yes. However negative emotions are our internal warning system that something is wrong. If we want people to come to know Christ, they need to know they can come angry, depressed, hurt, scared, or with any other emotion they might be experiencing at the time. Can God heal them and help them work through it? Absolutely! I will leave you with this…

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 6a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

God gave you your emotions. Never be ashamed of them. No one has the right to tell you how you can or cannot feel.

Don’t you just love how Lynette takes us through the scriptures pin-pointing people showing emotions?  Can you think of other scriptures of people expressing their emotions?  If so, leave her a comment.

Join Lynette right here next week. You don’t want to miss her own personal story of how she has dealt with her emotions during a time of loss..

Lynette’s Bio

I have been a believer for 13 years, I am a mom to an adult son whom I adore, and we live in Massachusetts. I love music, reading and nature.

I have had the privilege of being the leader of Celebrate Recover, a group which deals with people dealing with addictions. What a joy it was to witness people’s lives changed and start becoming who God called them to be.

My heart is to help other wounded hearts. My website is When God Says Move.