I have a tendency to stuff my emotions down and move on. Of course, those denied emotions find unhealthy ways to express themselves. I’ve learned that it is better to simply give myself time to process them. I noticed that others don’t experience that issue but express all the emotions and allow their emotions to lead their life. Neither are healthy and neither bear good fruit. So what do we do with our emotions?
Look to our Savior and Lord. He who was fully God and fully man. Jesus allowed himself to feel emotions, all of them. He mourned. He loved. He was angry. He was thankful. He knew that feelings are a gift and a part of being human. He knew that feeling emotions is a part of being alive. He also didn’t allow His emotions to lead His life. He looked to God and doggedly pursued God’s will for Him. Even when God’s purpose was for Jesus to face incredible betrayal, rejection and death on the cross. And through it all, Jesus gave space to process and feel all the emotions that came with it. He honored His humanity and divinity by doing that.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” (AMP)
It’s a picture of keeping the spring of life within you fresh, checking on it regularly and processing old emotions that may clog it up.
John records the shortest verse in the New Testament and a powerful one in John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” (ESV)
As you give your emotions space, you give permission for them to move through you instead of getting stuck in you. You have to feel them, to heal them. Don’t stuff them down or blow them up, bring them all to Jesus and process them out.