Reset: A 7-Day Plan for Building Positive HabitsSample

Identify Your Emotions

Jesus was emotional.

That word probably doesn’t make it on the typical list of qualities we use to describe Jesus. But He was a man who felt deeply and experienced meaningful and significant emotions here on this earth. In fact, Bible scholars have identified more than 39 different emotions Jesus expressed in His time on earth, from anger to agony to grief and sorrow to compassion and love and joy.

Jesus felt joy. “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11).

When we remain in Jesus’ love, we receive Jesus’ joy.

Jesus felt sorrow. “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41).

As Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he wept and showed His compassion for the guilty city.

Jesus felt exhaustion. “Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well” (John 4:6).

Jesus had just traveled a long way through Samaria and stopped for rest and a drink.

Jesus felt anger. “’You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?’” (Matthew 23:33).

As the scribes and Pharisees worked to keep the people from Christ, Jesus declares seven woes on them.

Jesus felt compassion. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

Jesus traveled around, sharing the good news and healing diseases, and when he saw the crowds, He empathized with them because there were so many people with so many needs and very few leaders to care for them.

In these glimpses of Jesus, we see He allowed Himself to feel, and He understood the importance of acknowledging and expressing what He felt. He modeled to us what it looks like to feel, and in doing so, He permitted us to be in tune with our own feelings.

Do you allow yourself to feel? Do you recognize your feelings? Not just the “easy” feelings like joy and excitement, but the hard ones like grief and loneliness too? How often do you lean into what you or what others around you are feeling, and how quick are you to pull away? If feeling the difficult feelings is part of the necessary strengthening of our emotional muscles, we’ll also experience the reward of stronger, richer, more powerful emotions on the other side.

When you feel deeply on one side, you’ll also feel deeply on the other side. Because on the other side of deep anxiety, there is deep peace. On the other side of strong sorrow, there is strong joy. On the other side of overwhelming heartache, there is overwhelming gratitude.

“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NLT).

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We hope this plan was helpful to you. You can read more from Debra Fileta in her latest book, Reset, available here.