(Listen to this episode on any major podcast platform by looking up The Naked Gospel podcast)
EPISODE RECAP:
Feelings and Faith
When it comes to sexual integrity, the problems we all face are not issues of lust, or fantasy, or even pornography. Issues of sexual integrity are fundamentally intimacy issues. Regardless of gender, we all have issues revealing our emotions and trusting others.
As humans, we all feel life deeply—life is filled with experiences of disappointment, frustration, anger, hurt, sadness, along with so many other emotions.
Yet, as Christians, we often picture God as a calculating, all powerful being. God and emotions going together don’t make much sense.
Consequently, we end up believing that most emotions are wrong. We often believe that to feel something, such as disappointment, actually reveals a lack of faith.
However, neuro-science shows us that every thought we have always comes with a feeling, even if we don’t know what we are feeling. Feelings are an unavoidable aspect of being human—God made us to feel deeply and emotionally experience life.
But what is the place of emotions in the Christian life? Can faith and feelings ever go together? Does God even want to know our emotions? Or even more to the point, does God ever feel?
God and Emotions
The God of the Bible is emotional. Many Christians don’t want to associate God and emotions. Emotions feel irrational, and the idea of God experiencing hate, anger, and jealousy can be confusing and problematic. And yet the Bible is full of stories where God expresses deep emotion.
Join us as we explore the theology of emotions with biblical theologian Dr. David T. Lamb!—author of The Emotions of God.
Some of the Interview Questions:
Does God have emotions?
If the Bible shows a God who feels, then why do we often view God as a being who does not feel?
What is a theology of emotions?
Does God want to know us emotionally?
What is the place of feelings in a relationship with God?
Are feelings a violation of faith? How can feelings be expressed in our practices of faith?
In a world that hurts, how can God’s people acknowledge pain and also give hope?