God is emotional

"Boys don't cry."
"Women are emotional."
"Don't be a wimp!"
"The church is only for sissies."

You have probably heard these statements before. They give the impression that emotionality has something to do with weakness. It is said that one has to be strong and strict in order to progress and succeed in life. As a man, you have to pretend that you have no feelings. As a woman who wants to be successful in the business world, you have to be hard, cool and emotional. Emotional women have no place in the executive suite. Is it really like that? Should we be emotional or not? Are we more normal when we show less emotions? How did God create us? Has he created us as sentimental, emotional beings or not? Some say that men are less emotional and that's why God created humans as less emotional creatures. This thought led to many stereotypes about men and women. Society claims that men are less emotional and women in turn are too emotional.

Humans were created in the image of God. But what kind of picture is that actually? Paul said of Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Colossians 1,15). To understand who we are in the image of God, we need to look at Jesus because He is the true image of God. Our True Identity Satan, the Deceiver, wanted to deceive us about our true identity from the start. I believe that the world of emotions is also part of our identity and Satan wants to deceive us about our feelings. He tries to make us believe that it is weak and stupid to perceive feelings and to give them space. Paul said of Satan that he blinded the unbelievers from seeing the bright light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God (2. Corinthians 4,4).

The truth is: God is emotional! People are emotional! Men are emotional! A recent study by a psychological institute (Mindlab) found that men are more emotional than women. The emotional reactions of men and women were measured on a psychological level. It was shown that, although more emotions were measured in men than in women, the test subjects felt them less. Women showed fewer emotions during the measurement, but felt them more than the male test subjects.

Humans are emotional beings. To be emotional is to be human. And vice versa: to be insensitive is to be inhuman. If you don't have emotions and feelings, then you are not a true human being. When a child is raped, it is inhuman not to feel anything about it. Unfortunately, we are wired to suppress our feelings as if they were bad. Many Christians gall at the thought of an angry Jesus. He's too emotional for them. They do not know what to make of Jesus who acts like this: "And he made a scourge of ropes and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen and poured out money on the changers and overturned the tables" ( John 2,15). Nor do they know what to think of a Jesus who weeps and sobs for a dead friend. But Johannes 11,35 reports exactly. Jesus wept more than we realize. Luke also relates this: "And as he drew near, he saw the city and wept for it" (Luke 19,41). The Greek word for cry means here to sob out loud. I am glad that Jesus was angry and expressing his feelings - even when he was crying. I would rather serve a soulful God than a numb one. The God revealed in the Bible is a God of anger, jealousy, sadness, joy, love, and compassion. If God didn't have feelings, he wouldn't care whether we go into the eternal fire or not. It is precisely because he has such deep feelings for us that he sent his own son into this world so that he might die once and for all for all people. Thank god he's emotional. People are emotional because they are in the image of an emotional God.

Emotions for the right things

Allow yourself to be emotional. It is human, even divine, to be like that. Do not allow the devil to make you inhuman. Pray that Heavenly Father will help you to feel emotions for the right things. Do not be angry about high food prices. Be angry about murder, rape and child abuse. TV and computer games can kill our feelings. It's easy to get to a point where we do not feel anything, even to Christians who are being killed for their beliefs. For sexual immorality that we see on TV and in the cinema, for children orphaned by HIV and Ebola.

One of the biggest problems with sin is the corruption of our emotions. We do not know what it feels like to be. Pray that through the Holy Spirit, the Father will heal your emotional life and change your emotions to those of Jesus. So that you can cry for things that Jesus cried for, that are angry at those on whom Jesus was angry and passionate about things for which Jesus was passionately committed.

by Takalani Musekwa


pdfGod is emotional