Emotions…blegh

Many of the principles in our reading of Give Praise to God could easily be given as advice to couples. Given the fact that the Christian faith is indeed a relationship this can perhaps be an easy way for us to digest our reading. 

It is not a difficult task for us to recall different couples that for lack of a better term were rather repulsive. Whether it be flirtatious freshman that met and started courting during freshman weekend or junior-highers who were passionately in-love and just started dating; these relationships cause many to just roll their eyes. If we're honest though, the age and timing of these relationships is not what bothers us. It's the utter lack of content. So much emotional attachment is created on so little substance. How different it is to see a relationship that begins with the intellectual understanding of the other person, and leads to willfully choosing to love the other, resulting in a strong emotional connection. This sort of relationship does not happen in a day. It takes time. I believe the same to be true of our relationship with God. Worship should include our affections but it comes through knowledge and choosing to do the right thing tirelessly. “But when emotions are the center of concern and the object of the worshiping experience, only impure and fleeting emotions will result (GPTG – pg. 367).” We must spend time investing in our relationship so that emotions are the natural response not the substance. A couple that shows no emotion to one another is a dry relationship but a relationship that is built solely on emotion is an empty one.

Knowing the danger or blessing that emotions are to worship and the way they have been abused or used, do you find yourself running in fear from them or running in love towards them?