Five Negative and Harmful EmotionsSample

Feeling unloved and unlove-able, unacceptable

Looking at our own lives, we will recognise these feelings. For some people, these feelings change their behaviour, break down their self-esteem, destroy their freedom, and hinder their ability to connect socially with others.

These emotions lead to a life of suspicion about others: “Are the two talking over there talking about me?” “Why did that man leave the party two minutes after I arrived?” The result is that people will avoid us, giving us more reason to believe that we are unloved, cannot be loved, and unacceptable.

Being abused, having received no positive love or acknowledgement from our parents or friends for something we have done well. It can be caused by someone we love breaking up with us or not being included in the A-team of the sport you love.

Some people will work harder, hoping their performance will make them more acceptable and loved. But they soon realise it is not solving the problem, and they will set the bar higher. They will compare themselves with others. But even if they come out “top of the class,” the feeling of not being loved doesn’t go away.

The cause of these feelings may be sexual abuse. “I have been defiled by someone else. Nobody will now love me or accept me.” Eventually, they will act according to their feelings, and a vicious cycle begins. People begin to act according to their feelings, which leads to more negative emotions, and a negative life pattern develops and entrenches itself in us all the time.

How can you stop the cycle? You have to understand that you are not what others think about you, and secondly, you are not who your emotions tell you about who you are. Who you are is determined by what God says and thinks about you. God is the only totally unbiased Person in the universe. Only God can judge accurately.

There is safety in God. The Lord Jesus died for all your sins and freed you from rejection, feeling filthy and unloved. And if you have contributed to being unloved and unacceptable, His blood is enough to cleanse you of all sin and events of the past. If someone hurt you, forgive. If you have done something wrong, ask forgiveness and forgive yourself.

Obedience: Open your heart to listen to the Holy Spirit. Hand over all your negative feelings to God and ask Him to wash them away with the blood of Jesus: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again (Jeremiah 31:3-4).