How good are you at working through your feelings? Consider this 2 ways: (1) Working through your feelings to handle them appropriately and effectively; and (2) Working through your feelings, continuing to do what you need to do. Both are essential and both are areas that God is maturing me in.
Our emotional life affects us in so many ways. Today, after being triggered, I realized that we often think through our emotions. Meaning our thoughts are not solid, rational, and reliable; instead they are running through the filter of our emotions. Depending on how we are feeling at the moment, this can be disastrous.
Think about how crazy your thoughts can get when you’re upset. Our feelings drive our thinking and often lead us to say and do things that we immediately regret. Understanding that our actions and thoughts are fueled by our feelings we should be motivated to focus on working through our feelings in a healthy and effective way.
What are your dominant emotions?
This awareness is critical because we all have a natural temperament, personality, and predisposition to certain emotions. Additionally, we must begin to better understand what triggers our unhealthy emotional reactions. The more that you begin to identify your patterns and triggers, the more prepared you’ll be in working through your feelings.
As Christians, we can never overlook the fact that we are constantly in a spiritual battle. Daily, the fight is on. Our enemy does not ever want us to walk in the love, joy, and peace that Christ died for us to have. He cannot take it away from us, from a spiritual perspective, so he works to prevent us from abiding in it from a natural perspective.
In other words, he cannot literally steal our joy from us; he just works to prevent us from abiding and actively experiencing it.
This is deep. Once we understand this, we’ll begin to look at things through a different lens. We will stop fighting others and start looking within to see what the situation is triggering within self. The fight is never against people [Ephesians 6:12]. The battle is spiritual so we must move accordingly, growing in awareness of our growth opportunities.
Prioritizing Christ is key.
As we prioritize Christ, He helps us to effectively navigate life’s situations as well as the emotions that they trigger. Prioritizing Him will provide us with the space to sort through things in a spiritual manner. Even now, as I write this, God is continuing to grow me in the area of prioritizing and planning.
We can never forget how dependent we are on the Lord. Your profession, your position, and your income, must always stay in its proper place. These things have a way of distracting us from the Lord. No matter the season of life that we’re in, let’s all commit to keeping Christ in that #1 slot. As we do, He has a way of bringing clarity to the confusion, guiding us through the process of working through our feelings in a spiritual, healthy, productive way.
He is able. Reach out if I may be of service to you along your journey.
