Transcript & Slides: Pleasant Feelings

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Pleasant Feelings
By David Feddes

Pleasant feelings are an important part of emotional fitness. Again, I want to remind you how important feelings are—if you do need reminding. I know that some Bible teachers keep trying to remind us: love is more than a feeling, peace is more than just a feeling, joy isn't just a feeling—it’s not just a feeling of happiness. Well, maybe love isn't just a feeling, or joy isn't only a feeling, or peace isn't just a feeling. Maybe it's more than that—but it's not less than a feeling.

Can you really say you love somebody if you feel absolutely no affection for them whatsoever? Can you say that you are at peace if you feel no sense of peace? Can you say that you're joyful if you don't feel happy at all? Feelings are an important part of the total experience of love and joy and peace. Feelings matter.

Sometimes we can act loving towards somebody even if we don't feel loving toward them. True enough. But when our feelings are healthy, we're going to both feel the love and act in the loving way. Sometimes joy is going to be more than just that wonderful feeling that we have. But if our emotions are really in tune with God's wonderful realities, we're going to feel intense joy. And there's something a little off about our feelings if we don't have that intense feeling of joy in the Lord.

So I do want to emphasize again that feelings do matter. In fact, feelings are one of the things that is really aroused when God works in revival. Because then we begin to have God's Spirit be very much working in our spirit. We become very in tune with God, and then our feelings become very much intensified. We feel the deepest of all realities.

In revival, people feel far worse than they ever felt before. If you read any of the stories of revival—from America in the First Great Awakening or the Second Great Awakening, the great revival in the Congo, or the revival in East Africa—read about the amazing revivals in Korea. One of the things you find is that people were weeping. They were falling down. They were crying out in sorrow over their sins—not just people who had not yet been converted, but Christians too. They were feeling the intensity of their sin.

Life is worse than I dare to admit. I'm far worse than I dare to admit. And God's wrath is far more serious than I dared to fear. When there's a time of revival, people are sensing these realities in ways they never did before, and their emotions are caught up in them.

But also, as you read about revivals, you find that there is a tremendous sense of gladness and overwhelming peace that comes upon people. When the Holy Spirit moves upon them, after the great sorrow comes this intense joy: life’s better than I dared to dream. I'm greater than I dared to—I'm a child of God. I'm called to reign with him. I'm an instrument in his hand. God is mighty and he's with me, and God is far kinder than I dared to hope. Despite my sin, he's accepted me. He's poured out his love on me—just waves of his love.

People speak of that when they speak of widespread revival, or sometimes of God's work in their own heart. Dwight Moody said that when God poured out his love on him, it was so much that he almost had to ask him not to pour out anymore—he thought it would kill him. God's love was so intense and overwhelming. When God comes near, the emotions become very intense—both the painful emotions as well as those pleasant emotions that God works in.

So let's not pretend that emotions don't matter at all, or that they have nothing to do with our spiritual vitality, because they do. This isn't just true of the revivals of history, but true of that first great and mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that swept across many nations, as recorded in the book of Acts.

There were painful feelings—very intense painful feelings—when Peter spoke to the people and told them that they had been responsible for crucifying the Son of God. They were cut to the heart (Acts 2:37). And that's because the Holy Spirit was poured on them—they were cut to the heart. They felt horrible and they said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

You read later on several times in the book of Acts—I'll just highlight Acts chapter 19—where something happens: someone who has been trying to drive out demons, but not relying on Jesus and not having the authorization, is beaten up by a demon-possessed person. Then the rest of the people are all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor (Acts 19:17). Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds (Acts 19:18). They realized that spiritual forces are real, demonic forces are powerful, God is even greater, and you better not go out facing those demonic forces without the power and authorization of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They had these painful feelings—of fear, of sorrow, of being cut to the heart. Why? Because their emotions are messed up? No. Because for the first time their emotions are in line with reality. And they know how serious a thing it is to be fighting against evil or to be evil in the presence of a holy God. So the painful feelings were a sign of revival—of the Spirit at work among those people in the book of Acts.

Then of course, there aren’t just the painful feelings, but those intense pleasant feelings. When the gospel came to the area of Samaria, there was great joy in that city (Acts 8:8). When an official from Africa, the secretary of the treasury of Ethiopia, was told the meaning of the prophecy of Isaiah—that someone would be despised and rejected by men and would suffer for us—and he was told what happened in the crucifixion of Jesus, in his resurrection, then he was baptized in the name of Jesus and cleansed of his sins, had faith in Jesus, and he headed back to Africa. What is the last we hear of him? He went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:39).

The disciples faced intense opposition in many of the cities they were in. On one occasion, they were driven out, and it says the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52), because they were suffering for the cause of Jesus. They were involved in his mission. So even though it was unpleasant to face that opposition, they were filled with joy because they were full of the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Silas were in the city of Philippi, and they were praying and singing hymns to God—they were rejoicing. And it helps to know where they were praying and rejoicing. Do you know where they were? They were in a dungeon after having been beaten within an inch of their life and then locked in stocks in a dungeon (Acts 16:22–24). They had driven an evil spirit out of a girl, had preached the gospel, and had been punished terribly for that. Yet they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the Bible says the other prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25). Then God sent an earthquake, and the doors of the prison were opened, the chains fell off, and the person running the prison—the jailer—wanted to kill himself because he thought all the prisoners had got away. Before he could kill himself, Paul said, “Don’t kill yourself” (Acts 16:28).

The jailer said, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). He’d heard them praying. He’d heard them singing. He knew that they had something he didn’t. And so he said, “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31). He and his household listened to the good news. They believed. They were baptized. And the Bible says he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family (Acts 16:34).

So, pleasant feelings aren’t just some little nothing. They're something that comes along with the experience of salvation—of being part of God's mission, of walking with the Lord, and being in tune with God through his Holy Spirit.

I want to talk with you some more and think with you about pleasant feelings—because it’s possible to have pleasant feelings that aren't from God as well, so we need to be wary of those, but also to be aware of what pleasant feelings are telling us about God and about his work in us. We're going to look at three pairs: hope and joy, purity and dignity, and peace and love.

Hope is being happy about what the future holds. Joy is being happy about what's already going on. “I will always have hope,” says the psalmist (Psalm 71:14). In the New Testament, the apostle Paul says, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:2, 5). So there's this intense experience of love from the Holy Spirit, and then the hope and joy that comes with that. So it can be said, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). When you've got God, you've got so much to be glad about. You rejoice in his glory. You rejoice in the future that he's prepared for you. You rejoice in the eternal blessings that are coming your way. And you have joy already, because you already taste at least the down payment from the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13–14).

Now, hope and joy do not automatically mean that you're totally in tune with God. There are people who have hope for the future—they think it looks bright. They have some happiness—you could label it joy—and it's misplaced. The Bible says the wicked swallow up the righteous, and the wicked foe rejoices and is glad (Habakkuk 1:13–15). Here it's talking about Babylon—the wicked civilization that's swallowing up many others—and they're enjoying every minute of it. Not only are they enjoying it, but they think that that's going to continue.

Babylon is a theme that runs all through the Bible. In Revelation there's a vision of an entity called Babylon again—civilization that's anti-God—and it says, "The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over [the prophets who have been killed] and will celebrate by sending each other gifts" (Revelation 11:10). They've got joy because God's witnesses have been destroyed. You can have joy—and have it be very misplaced. You can have hope for the future and think things are going to turn out well—and be dead wrong.

Another man from Babylon—King Belshazzar of Babylon—gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles, and they were celebrating together. They were even using the golden sacred cups and plates that came from the temple of God in Jerusalem while they celebrated. And in the midst of that celebration—praising their gods, experiencing much joy—a hand wrote on the wall. As soon as that hand wrote on the wall, King Belshazzar's hope and joy were shattered. His knees were knocking together, and he wondered what it meant. The prophet Daniel was brought in, and he said, "Here's what the writing says: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin. You've been weighed in the balance and found wanting, and this very night you will be killed, and your city will fall" (Daniel 5:25–31).

Babylon will fall. In the book of Revelation, that theme is taken up again: “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!” (Revelation 18:2). There's joy and hope in Babylon—but it's short-lived. So you can have these emotions when you're part of Babylon, when you're part of the fallen world—and it's misplaced because you're out of tune with God.

“The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing” (Proverbs 10:28). They have hopes—but they come to nothing. “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing” (Proverbs 11:7). So when we evaluate our positive feelings, we need to allow for the possibility that they might be misleading us. We need to realize that if we're among the wicked, then all the hope and joy that we think we have comes to nothing.

But there is a real hope. There is a real joy. And when you're emotionally healthy, when you're in tune with the Lord, then you have this hope and joy. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). When you know what God has in store for your future, it's an anchor. It keeps you going. It keeps you steady. It keeps you secure.

In the book of Nehemiah, we read about the people who are sad because they've heard the Word of God read to them, and they realize how far out of line from God's Word they've been. But then the leaders of the people go to them and say, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). You've been grieving—but it's good that you've heard the Word of God. It's good that you've repented of your sins. Now realize that God's come near to you. He's speaking to you. He's working among you. And now is the time to celebrate and rejoice. So they had a great feast and were glad together.

When Jesus was with his disciples on the night before he offered himself for the sins of the world and died, he said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Jesus came to give us fullness of joy. Everything he did and everything he told us was done to give us his joy.

And God is a God of hope. He's a God of joy. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). When you're emotionally fit, the emotions of God are flowing into your life. And he's a God of hope. He's got great plans for the future. He's a God of joy. He's a source and fountain of unending joy. God is always rejoicing. So when you have this God filling you, he fills you with his joy, with his peace. By the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in you, you have this life in you. You're emotionally fit when you have the life of God in you—and the emotions that God arouses in you.

The apostle Peter says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8–9). When you're a saved person—when your soul has been captured by Jesus and cleansed by Jesus, and you're receiving the goal of your faith, eternal life—then there is a joy that you can't even put into words. A joy unspeakable and full of glory, because you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you belong to Jesus, and when your emotions are fit, they're going to be in tune with these fantastic realities. Now this does not mean that you always feel the intensity of that joy. Because sometimes your emotions aren't quite in tune with your true standing. You can still be a Christian and have your hope grown quite dim. You can be a Christian and have your joy diminished. But then your emotions are out of tune with who you really are and what Christ has done for you. And it's time to seek ways to arouse those emotions and pray for the Holy Spirit to renew your hope and to renew your joy again.

Another pair of very pleasant feelings: the feeling of being pure, of being clean; and the feeling of being dignified—of being important, significant, worthwhile.

1 Corinthians 6:11 says, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Just before it says that, it speaks of all kinds of horrible things and sins and shameful things that they were involved in. And it says, “That's what you were” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11). But that's not what you are. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were set apart by God. You were justified—you were declared right with God—in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. You're made pure. You're as clean as snow.

And it's good that you feel that way. You should feel pure when God declares you pure. You don't have to disagree with God. If God washes you and says you're justified, then it's okay to feel pure. And it's okay to feel important—because God says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). “You are the light of the world,” says Jesus (Matthew 5:14). The Bible says you're going to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3) and have positions of power. You're going to be seated with Christ on his throne and reign with him forever (Revelation 3:21).

If you feel important because of that, that's okay—because you should. That doesn't mean that you should feel so important that helping others is beneath you, or that you despise others. Because God has exalted many others too and made them his chosen people. He's made them wonderful and amazing. So you should recognize their dignity and respect it. But you can also feel the dignity and value of who you are as a person.

And it's a wonderful thing to feel pure and clean and worthwhile and dignified. You're not meant to go around the rest of your life saying, “I'm bad, I'm rotten, I'm worthless.” You're not meant to go around the rest of your life saying, “I'm filthy, I'm foul, I stink.” Sometimes we do have conviction of that sin that still lingers in us, or the shameful things we do—and that's part of being emotionally fit too. But when God has declared you pure, when he's exalted you in the ways that he has, then we're not really emotionally in tune with reality if we're not feeling pure and dignified.

So may God give each of us—who are made complete in him—that sense of Christ's purity that he declares upon us, that sense of dignity that he gives us as his sons and daughters.

However, it must be said that you can feel pure and dignified and not have everything be okay. The Bible says, “There are those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth” (Proverbs 30:12). Jesus gives an example of that. He often talked about the Pharisees who thought very highly of themselves. He tells a story about a Pharisee who stands up and prays about himself: “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men—I’m not like those bad sinners, and I’m not like that lousy, traitorous tax guy over there. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all I get. God, thank you that I’m a wonderful person.”

Meanwhile, somebody else who’s despised by many—a tax gatherer—says, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:9–13). And God lifts him up. Jesus says, “The Pharisee did not go home justified before God” (Luke 18:14). So it’s possible to have the sense of “I’m better, I’m pure, I’m important, I’m dignified” but have it not be built on God’s verdict and not have it be coming through humility before God and dependence on God.

So we need to be wary if we feel so pure and so dignified and it’s not based on Jesus, not based on God’s work within us, and if we’re doing it with a blind eye toward the ways in which we still behave impurely and the ways in which we aren’t living up to who we are as royalty in God. You can have a warped sense of purity and dignity, and we need to be alert to that as we’re thinking about positive emotions. It’s possible to have a false sense of purity and dignity. But also, when your dignity and purity are based on God himself, then you have the right to feel pure and to feel important.

The Bible says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). To be blameless before God—to have God keep your whole being—that’s what it means to be pure before him.

The apostle also says, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). So the apostle Paul’s expecting a crown himself. And he also says, if you’re longing for Jesus’ return, if you belong to Jesus, you can count on this crown of righteousness as well.

Don’t just let that phrase fly past you—a crown! To reign with Christ. To be seated on a throne with him, as the Bible pictures it (Revelation 3:21). To rule over angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). To have this tremendous dignity and importance of being a son or daughter of the King of the universe. We need to let that sink in and feel—really feel—the dignity and the sense of importance that comes from being crowned with Christ’s honor.

Another pair of pleasant emotions—and that’s saying it very mildly—are peace and love. These aren’t just pleasant. These are wonderful, amazing, fantastic feelings that God can give: “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” (Philippians 4:7). Do you know what that peace is? You can’t put it into words. You can’t fully understand it. But somehow God gives you this sense of peace—of everything being okay with him.

Maybe you’ve had that sense when you first came to know the Lord, or at other points in your life. I know that when I was a boy and I was struggling with whether I was right with God, whether God was real, whether I belonged to him, whether he was my Savior—then one night, when I prayed that the Lord would be my Savior, that he would live within me, I had an amazing sense of overwhelming peace from God. Something I can’t explain or put into words or fully understand, but nonetheless, this peace that the Bible talks about. And I don’t always have that same feeling to that same degree—feelings sometimes are stronger, sometimes they’re less—but when my feelings are really in tune with my situation in relation to God, then I have this peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

There’s also love. “To know this love that surpasses knowledge…” The apostle says, “I want you to know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18–19). God is love. And when you have his love, you’re filled with his fullness.

To know this love—to know that the God who is love, the God of the whole universe, loves you personally—wow. To know that you’re loved is a tremendous feeling. And it doesn’t stop there. Not only are you loved, but you begin to experience the kind of love that God has—not just flowing toward you, but flowing through you—where you love him back, where you love God because he first loved you (1 John 4:19). And because he is love and he lives in you, then you’re starting to experience love toward other people that you never had before.

And this love goes beyond feeling. It goes into action. It involves a lot more than just what’s going on inside and how you feel—but it includes that. You feel intense affection for God. You feel affection for other people.

And along with love, there is peace: “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 6:23). God’s blessings of peace and love.

It’s possible to have warped peace and love—just as it’s possible to have all the other emotions be warped. There are people who have a sense of peace—and it’s misguided. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). They don’t have real peace with God. They may have a good feeling in their heart, but they don’t know the real and true and living God, and they’re not made right with him through Jesus’ blood.

The Bible says, “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). That happened at the time of Noah, when people thought Noah was just a crazy guy building a boat on dry land where there’s no water. They thought everything was fine. For 120 years they laughed at Noah and mocked him. And then one day destruction came. The Bible says at the end of time it’s going to be like that again. People will be saying, “Hey, it’s peaceful. We’re safe.” And then sudden destruction will come upon them.

You can have warped peace. And you can have warped love. “How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” (Psalm 4:2). Some people have loved idols. They have loved the dreams of their own imagination but not loved the living and true God. Some people love evil. “You love evil rather than good” (Psalm 52:3). So you can feel good about certain things. You can love some things. But if you feel good about the wrong things, and if you love the wrong things, then your emotions are very warped and misguided.

Jesus came to give us peace and love. Even though peace and love can be warped and misguided when our emotions are totally out of tune with God and totally out of tune with reality—when we’re healthy, when we’re relating well to God, when he’s at work in us—then we have his peace and love. And Jesus himself gives it. He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

“The Father himself loves you because you have loved me” (John 16:27). “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “Father, I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26).

Jesus in us—that’s where the peace and the love come from. Christ dwelling right within our hearts. That’s because Jesus is the Son of God, and God is the God of love and peace. “The God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11). “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

That’s the key to it all. It’s not saying, “Oh, I’m going to try to make my emotions a little more positive. I hope I can feel a little more loving. I hope I can get a little more peace.” No. “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God is living in him” (1 John 4:16).

It’s the presence of God in you that gives you this love and peace. “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way” (2 Thessalonians 3:16). He’s the God of love and peace. He’s the God of love. He’s the Lord of peace.

The Bible phrases it many different ways, but if you want the reality of those beautiful emotions of love and peace, then you need the God of love and peace.

So we've been talking about exploring your emotions—the painful feelings as well as the pleasant feelings. And when you explore your pleasant feelings, you need to ask a few questions: What triggers you to feel hope, or joy, or purity, or dignity, or peace, or love? Is it God’s work within you—or is it a phony version of these things?

How do your pleasant feelings affect your behavior? Are they making you more and more the kind of person God wants you to be? One of the great works of Jonathan Edwards is called The Treatise on the Religious Affections, where he’s talking about feelings, and he says one of the tests of whether these feelings are genuine or not is whether it's transforming who you are—whether you're having a more Godlike and Christlike way of relating and behaving and acting toward people. Because if you're just going by the feeling, but it's not being evidenced in your behavior, then you have to ask questions about whether the feelings reflect a reality in you.

What are your pleasant feelings saying about reality—and others—and God? Do you realize you're living in your Father's world and you're destined for a world made new? Pleasant feelings reflect that reality. When you're relating to others, are you radiant with the love of God and the peace of God and the dignity that God gives you—and all these other pleasant emotions?

Or do you have a lot of negative emotions? If you have more negative emotions, or if you lack those positive ones, are some things wrong or out of joint in your relationship with others and with God himself? Are your feelings telling you that something needs to improve in your relation to God—or that God is already working in you in wonderful ways? And maybe sometimes a bit of both. You say, “Boy, I am experiencing some great feelings from God. I know they're God-given. But I also know there's much more that I need from God and to become closer to him.”

What do your pleasant feelings point to—in your heart and in God’s heart? The Bible speaks about this “unspeakable and glorious joy” because God has saved your soul (1 Peter 1:8–9). It speaks of this love because God pours out his love from his heart into your heart (Romans 5:5). So when you have these feelings, don't just say, “Oh, sure is nice to feel good.” You say, “Wow, what a God! What he has done for me! What a marvel to know him and to have these things poured out from the God of love and peace, the God of joy and hope.”

And this question: Do your pleasant feelings outweigh the painful? Because we've already said—all of us in a broken world, all of us as broken and wounded people—are going to have some painful feelings. And it's appropriate that we do, because they're keeping us in tune with those realities. But we don’t want to become totally angry or hateful or overwhelmed by whatever negative feeling it is. The pleasant feelings are more easily brought on, they last longer, and they’re bigger—they in fact last forever.

So are you getting bogged down in the painful feelings? Or are the positive and pleasant feelings that God gives to those who love him and whom he loves—are those predominating in your life?

The answer, to some degree, is going to be mixed feelings. We're going to have a mixture. The apostle Paul expresses it this way: “Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:8–10).

When you belong to the Lord and you're his agent in a struggling world, you're going to have this mixture of emotions—where part of you is sad, and yet you're always rejoicing in the Lord and always rejoicing in what he's doing in you, always rejoicing in what he's doing through you.

When you're emotionally healthy, you're going to have a bit of that mix—but the mix is going to be shaped by the presence of the Holy Spirit right within your spirit, ministering to your spirit.

So emotional fitness means that your emotions are in tune with reality—with others—with God. That you manage them and display them appropriately. That they’re linked with the other parts of total fitness. That they’re helping you to sense true realities—deep realities. And you're paying attention to your feelings. You're not trying to shut them down or ignore them. You're paying attention to them because they're part of the equipment God’s given you to be in touch with reality and experience it—and to get a sense of what's going on in your own heart and of what the great heart of God is doing in his relationship to you.

Don’t just ignore your feelings. They’re no replacement for the Bible—they’re no replacement for the Word of God. But the Bible itself speaks of feelings, and what feelings come to those who belong to the Lord. So we should pay attention to them. And we should, as I’ve said again and again, when we experience those painful feelings, not allow ourselves—and pray to God not to allow us—to be stuck in them, where they rule our life and are the predominant reality. But instead, we should have the unlimited pleasures of those who live at God’s right hand, in whom God dwells—whose lives are flooded with the peace, the joy, the dignity, the purity, and all of the great emotions that are part of belonging to Jesus Christ our Savior.

 

Pleasant Feelings
By David Feddes
Slide Contents

Avoiding emotions

The reason we don’t want to feel is that feeling exposes the tragedy of our world and the darkness of our hearts. To be aware of what we feel can open us to questions we would rather ignore. For many of us, that is why it is easier not to feel. But a failure to feel leaves us barren and distant from God and others. (Dan Allender & Tremper Longman)

Emotional fitness

Fit emotions feel deep realities.

Life is far worse than I dare to admit.
Life is far better than I dare to dream.

I am far worse than I dare to admit.
I am far greater than I dare to dream.

God is far harsher than I dare to fear.
God is far kinder than I dare to hope.

Painful feelings

They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

They were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. (Acts 19:17-18)

Pleasant feelings

There was great joy in that city... He went on his way rejoicing… The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit… Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God… He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family. (Acts 8:8; 8:39; 13:52; 16:34)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Pleasant feelings

• Hope, joy
• Purity, dignity
• Peace, love

Hope, joy

I will always have hope. (Psalm 71:14)

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God… And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:2, 5)

Rejoice in the Lord always. (Phil 4:4)

Warped hope, joy

The wicked swallow up the righteous… The wicked foe… rejoices and is glad. (Habakkuk 1:13-15)

The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts. (Revelation 11:10)

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles. (Dan 5:1)

The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing. (Proverbs 10:28)

When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing. (Prov 11:7)

Hope, joy

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:19)

Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

You believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9)

Purity, dignity

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11)

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. (1 Peter 2:9)

Warped purity, dignity

There are those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth. (Proverbs 30:12)

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men.” (Luke 18:11)

Purity, dignity

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness. (2 Timothy 4:8)

Peace, love

… the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. (Philippians 4:7)

… to know this love that surpasses knowledge. (Ephesians 3:19)

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 6:23)

Warped peace, love

“Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:14)

While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? (Psalm 4:2) You love evil rather than good. (Psalm 52:3)

Jesus’ peace and love

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you… The Father himself loves you because you have loved me… I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace… Father, I have made you known to them… that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (John 14-17)

God of love and peace

The God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Cor 13:11)

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. (2 Thess 3:16)

Exploring your emotions

Pleasant feelings

• Hope, joy
• Purity, dignity
• Peace, love

Painful feelings

• Fear, sadness
• Guilt, shame
• Anger, hate

Explore pleasant feelings

• What triggers you to feel hope, joy, purity, dignity, peace, and love?
• How do your feelings affect your behavior?
• What are your pleasant feelings saying about reality, others, and God?
• What do your pleasant feelings point to in your heart and God’s heart?
• Do pleasant feelings outweigh painful?

Mixed feelings

…through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (2 Cor 6:8-10)

Emotional fitness

• In tune with reality, others, and God.
• Displayed appropriately.
• Linked with other parts of total fitness.
• Sense true and deep realities.
• Hints of your heart and of God’s heart.
• Limited pain, unlimited pleasure.