God’s Word Versus Emotions Fall in love with God’s Word and watch His truth anchor your heart. by Laura Sandretti
I had a pit in my stomach yesterday. The details of my dilemma are too raw and personal to share, but most of us have been there—a health scare, a hurting child, an ongoing marital issue, or worse. We continue smiling, working, and going through the motions, but there is a pervasive something in our soul that feels… Heavy, unsettled, and afraid.
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winter 2021
I am mentoring a young woman right now who loves the Lord. She has experienced Him powerfully through worship, sermons, and prayer. She admitted, though, that when it comes to God’s Word, she struggles to read it. Like me at times, she finds it confusing, irrelevant, and dry. Unlike me, she is young. She has not suffered miscarriages, watched her child wheeled into surgery, or been diagnosed with an illness. She has not had as many opportunities to feel heavy, unsettled, and afraid.
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As I have traversed the ups and downs of life, I have been indebted to older, wiser women who have encouraged me to continue reading God’s Word even when it seemed hard to read or irrelevant to my life and problems. I am thankful for mentors who have been in the pit, women who know that when the rug gets pulled out from under us, the Bible provides hope, peace, and the ability to breathe. I am grateful for seasoned sisters
in Christ who have taught me the power that Scripture has over raw, loud, painful emotions when we persist in, pray through, and practice reading God’s Word. Women urging me to read when I do not feel like it or feel that it will help. Therein lies the rub. Feelings are powerful. Emotions can trump reason, logic, and reality. Although God gave us emotions, and they are necessary and helpful at times, they can also distort and even dismantle our faith and hope in Christ. They can overrun our hearts, our minds, and our souls. I agree with the young woman I am mentoring—solid biblical teaching, worship, and prayer are powerful and inspiring. However, if the songs we sing and the sermons we hear are not confirmed, solidified, and strengthened by our individual time spent in the unchanging Word of God, they are incomplete. Why? As I was recently reminded yesterday during my sadness and distress, God’s Word is living and active. It superseded my emotions by somehow speaking directly to them. The Bible provided the personal, pertinent, and poignant Spirit-inspired awareness and answers I needed. His Word meets, reminds, and calms us supernaturally, specifically, and sweetly.
