Threefold Commitment

Two: Emotional

Emotions also play a role in receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior.


From the Scripture we know that God has emotions. He feels love, joy, sorrow, compassion, anger, disappointment and many other emotions. The Bible also says that as created in the image of God, He has given you the capacity to experience emotions. From the time we awaken in the morning until we go to sleep at night, everything we do involves emotions.


Each person who receives Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord will have a different kind of emotional experience. Paul had a dramatic encounter with God on the road to Damascus whereas Timothy was raised in a Christian home where he came to know Christ at an early age and gradually grew in his faith.


We hear of Christians sharing how their dramatic encounters with Christ resulted in their being healed of drug addiction, gross immorality or other distressing problems. The fact that their lives were indeed changed validates their claims.


But there are many who have knelt quietly in the privacy of their homes, at a retreat, or in a church and there received Christ into their lives with no dramatic emotional experience.


Emotions can be misleading. Probably no one issue has caused more people to lack the assurance of a vital relationship with God than a wrong emphasis on feelings. We all experience great joy, enthusiasm and spiritual awareness but also times of sorrow and disappointment. But you should not depend on feelings to determine the truth of your life with Christ.


We are to live the Christian life by faith, not emotions. Emotions can be very deceiving.


Emotions are a result of your faith and obedience. Our Lord said, "The one who obeys me is the one who loves me; and because he loves me, my Father will love him; and I will too, and I will reveal myself to him." Romans 1:17 assures us, "In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'"


There is a place for emotions in the Christian experience, though you should not seek them nor attempt to recapture them from the past. While not ignoring the value of legitimate emotions, it is more important to remember that you are to live by faith in God and in His promises, not by seeking an emotional experience.