Man vs. Feelingsনমুনা

Facing Our Emotions

This week, we’re going to talk about emotions.

Brothers, before you bolt, hear me out:

We need to talk about emotions.

Why?

Well, here’s the deal: we can’t properly control and manage our emotions until we face them.

Unfortunately, many men prefer avoiding our emotions. I call this unfortunate because it doesn’t work in the long run.

One of the most consistent themes I’ve observed in my work as a psychotherapist is that most mental health disorders can be traced back to not knowing how to properly regulate our emotions.

A 2024 article published in the Cambridge University Press confirms this observation, telling us that problematic emotional regulation strategies like avoidance are often involved in the development and maintenance of mental health disorders.

In other words, avoidance is what you shouldn’t be doing with your emotions.

So, what should we do?

I suggest that the key to learning to manage your emotions well is to 1) Acknowledge them and 2) Bring them to Jesus—our wonderful, compassionate Counselor (Isaiah 9:6).

Over these seven days, my prayer is that as we explore the emotional life of Jesus, we’ll learn that we can bring all our emotions to Him because He can sympathize with us. We don’t have to try to deal with them alone; we can find fellowship when we bring them all to the Friend who’s closer than a brother (John 15:15).

Jesus is a great Lord. He’s fully God, yet fully man (i.e., the true man). This is a beautiful mystery, yet it tells us that He can fully relate to us as men and sympathize with every emotion we go through, even temptation. Men are often uncomfortable with the negative emotions we feel, including our anger, sadness, and loneliness—yet the Scriptures promise that none of them are foreign to Jesus.

The truth is that no matter what we feel, we can bring it to the Lord. We can trust that He can understand, relate to, and sympathize with what we’re feeling. We can draw near to Him with all that we feel with confidence and trust that we’ll receive the mercy and grace to deal with all of it (Hebrews 4:16).

Here’s the truth: no amount of therapy can come close to the supernatural grace of Jesus in empowering us to face and properly respond to every emotion we feel. We will explore more this week together.

Prayer: Lord, I believe You’re a great high priest who can sympathize with every emotion I feel, particularly those that make me feel weak. I trust that when I bring all I’m feeling to You as I draw near to Your throne of grace, You’ll meet me in fellowship and give me everything I need to steward my heart well. Help me see that You’ll never reject or ridicule me when I bring everything I feel to You—so help me do so today and meet You in honesty and truth. Amen.

Reflection: How often do you find yourself avoiding your emotions? How does this tendency affect your emotional health in the long run? What are you feeling that you need to bring to Jesus today?