Transcript:
Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of The Kingdom Perspective.

What should we do with our emotions in the face of the present pandemic?

We should spend more time in the biblical book of Psalms. The Psalms are the Bible’s song book and as such it is not surprising that they deal with the full gamut of our human emotional experience.

The Reformer John Calvin put it this way:

“I have been accustomed to call this book ‘An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul’; for there is not an emotion…which is not here represented as in a mirror.”

Now, since these Psalms are divinely inspired, we can be assured that they show us the proper way to process our emotions before God. We are emotional creatures, and that is a good thing. Our emotions were meant to drive us to relationship with God and positive relationship with one another. However, because of sin our emotions can be out of whack. They can be misleading.

Therefore, like everything else in our human experience, our emotions need to be reoriented according to God’s design. We need to be led by the Word of God and not by the voice of our emotions. In some instances, this will mean that we are affirmed in our emotions (e.g. it is right for you to feel a sense of fear at your own frailty). However, in other instances we will need to be corrected in our emotions (e.g. just because you feel your own frailty does not mean that you cannot likewise turn to God in your fear and trust Him).

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.