Christian Counseling - Emotions: The Good and Bad

You and I are wondrously created in the image and likeness of God, which includes an emotional nature. It is relatively easy to conclude from scripture that God is a feeling being. As One who knew and knows good and evil, He can experience pleasure, as well as pain (Ephesians 4:30).


Originally, Adam and Eve didn't know good and evil and, therefore, had not yet experienced troubled or painful emotions. Their feelings were a gift from God--good and pure. But when they sinned, they understood evil, and it corrupted their emotional nature. For the first time, they experienced anxiety, fear, shame and guilt.


The corruption of human emotions has continued to morph or quickly change throughout time into things like inappropriate jealousy and murderous, vengeful rage, which we see in the story of Cain and Able. It was not long thereafter that humans and animals became so depraved or evil in heart that God ended all of life, save Noah, his family and some animals. There is no feeling which cannot and has not been corrupted--love becomes possessive, godly jealousy or envy becomes evil jealousy or envy, lust for God becomes lust for power, human vengeful desires become vengeful actions, pride becomes excessive, hatred of evil becomes hatred for people, admiration becomes worship, pleasure becomes an obsessive and selfish quest, etc.

Can you think of one feeling that was not originally good? To help answer this question beyond a quick mental search, you will need a resource that defines Hebrew and Greek words, such as a software program (http://www.wordsearchbible.com/). This resource will tell you if a word in the original language was used both positively and negatively. Such is the case for words like: jealousy, envy, hatred, anger, pride, lust, and vengeance.

Christian Counseling - Feeling Good About You?

Christians, those who follow Christ, possess the indwelling of the Spirit of God and a sin nature. How can they feel good about who they are? Most seem to experience emotional and conceptual instability in their self-esteem and self-image.

We are frequently reminded of things like: we are "sinners" and "selfish"; "...our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment" (Isaiah 64:6); "There is no one who does good" (Psalm 14:1); "...for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" (Romans 7:18); and "...I am a nobody" (II Corinthians 12:11). Yet, we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. How can we love ourselves after thinking about these references? Perhaps we are not meant to feel good about us.

Yet, Christ wants us to have an abundant life while we live on earth, Paul learned to be content, part of the church mission is to edify its members, Jesus gives us His peace, God makes His home in us, He unconditionally loves all of us as we are, and God sees us as "perfect" or complete "in Christ." How can He say and do all that when we still have a sin nature and sometimes follow it?

Christians who tote around these two opposing self-images are like a house divided against itself--it cannot stand. It will cause great and continual conflict--positive and negative self-statements, high and low self-esteem, confidence and self-doubt, self-hate and self-love, depression and anxiety. Which self-image does God want to rule in our lives? We all know the answer, the good one. Or maybe the bad one, which can help us keep a lid on sin and pride.

Does this conflict resonate with you? Can you further define this conflict? What has helped you toward solving this dilemma?