My heart is stirred by this topic! We came upon it seemingly by accident, but I know God better than to believe that.
As a counselor, I am very interested in emotional health and what that looks like. But, I have never considered God's emotional health before. Andy, one of our core leaders, spoke for a few minutes this morning about what God has been teaching him about His perfect emotions. Andy said this:
God's heart is glad and content because of who He is. He is the most emotionally stable person. God is very emotional and He expresses His emotions perfectly. In contrast, our emotions tend to be more reactive and we often do not respond to them in righteousness. In contrast, God's emotions flow from His perfect heart and being. They come from the place of His righteous settlement in Himself. As a result, they are always righteous in their expression. God is all powerful and always in control. As the Holy Spirit works in me, I am growing in my self-control and beginning to express my emotions in a more righteous way. God is neither stoic nor emotionally explosive. He is perfectly stable in the way that He expresses His emotions.
Again, I love this picture of God setting the example for us in our emotional health! Besides the obvious personal application, I am especially thankful for this today because I have really been asking for wisdom and revelation as I enter this next season in my career. I have never been able to do overtly Christian counseling. I have always believed that counseling is the work of the Holy Spirit and that I can only do counseling as I partner with Him in what He is doing in my clients. But, I'm not sure what to do differently in my practice of counseling now that I have the freedom to be openly Christian. So, this jumped out to me as a new counseling technique that I can use with believers! Or maybe even unbelievers as God increases my boldness….
I can encourage them to get into their Bible to study the emotions of God and recommend specific passages where I see that God has emotions. I can pray with them and ask God to reveal to them how He expresses His emotions perfectly in Scripture. I can pray with them and ask the Holy Spirit to increase their self-control so that they can express their emotions more appropriately. I think that I want to build time for intercession into my R2HOP schedule so that I can pray for my clients and listen to what God is saying to me about them and how to work with them. I have also been thinking about taking time on my fast days to intercede for clients who really need spiritual breakthrough and healing. My heart is beginning to feel stirred for counseling again and I am so thankful!
I was also challenged by a comment that was made during our discussion time. One of my classmates made the comment that God lavishes His love on the whole world, even those that we don't think are deserving of His affection. He does not love in a self-protective way, determining who is going to respond to His love and then loving only those people. God risks being rejected and looking foolish by loving the entire world, but He does it anyways. I don't really love this way at all. I usually decide who I want to love based on how much I like people and how they treat me. I find it easier to love people who are similar to me. I don't like feeling rejected when I love someone and they don't return my love. I feel ashamed and disappointed when I choose to care about someone and they do not reciprocate. I analyze possible outcomes before I choose to love someone so that I know I have a high change of being loved in return before I start expressing that feeling of love toward another person.
I think that I would like to love more like God does. I suspect that this is how He wants me to love too. I also think that His love in my heart will cover any rejection, shame and disappointment that I may feel along the way. Here's to being more emotionally healthy and more lavish in my love.
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