What are feelings? For example, "guilt". What is guilt? It's definitely not tangible like love, which I would argue "love" is, but unlike love, it's a feeling and I wasn't born with guilt. I had to learn guilt, like I have to learn how to hate. If guilt wasn't wired into our system, then why is it so powerful? Things like guilt, anger, jealousy, and so on are all distractions to joy, patience, peace, kindness, etc. Then again, distraction or not, don't these emotions have potential to draw us closer to the love of Jesus and the emotions that come with that. I wonder, if we take "love" with us when we die, do we also take the feelings associated with "love"? On the other hand, if we don't take feelings with us when we die, but we take love, then our feelings here on Earth must serve a purpose, right? Also, if anger is the opposite of joy, then wouldn't hate be the opposite of love? Does that make "hate" more than a feeling? If God chooses "love" to enter heaven, then I would also assume those who "hate" end up elsewhere.
Hebrews 12:2 that says, "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God", implying that joy is experienced after death. I would also have to assume it would be impossible to not feel emotions as the result of the overflow of love in Heaven. If one emotion is felt after death, then doesn't logic tell us that all emotions are capable of being felt? But if just "love" is experienced in Heaven, then aren't we are restricted to only feel the emotions that result from love which include things like joy? How do we fully experience anything if there are restrictions? This leads me to think there has to be a difference in the joy and anger we experience here on Earth compared to the joy we experience in Heaven. When Jesus is talking to his disciples in John 16, he is telling them of his future fate. In verse 22 he says, "So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." Jesus himself implies there will be an abundance of joy experienced after death...a joy that no one can take away. If this joy cannot be taken like Jesus has said, then it also means grief and guilt and shame are also emotions we will never feel again! Isn't this evidence that there is a difference in the feelings we experience on Earth and in Heaven?
So what do we do with our emotions and feelings while we are here on Earth? What purpose do they have? We have an ultimate purpose, and that is to love. Emotions come fourth as a result of things like love and hate like I mentioned before, so is there something more we should be doing with our emotions beside feel them? We can spread love, but can we spread emotions? It's interesting to me that people are so influenced by other peoples emotions, yet emotions are usually a result of things we personally experience. Why do we feed off of each others emotions so much? Are we all individually connected to the same Love (God), so as a result we all experience the same emotions differently? The properties of Love never change, but we all experience emotions on different levels and at different times. So again, is there a separate purpose to our emotions? I feel like too often we let our negative emotions influence our purpose to spread the love of Jesus, when in reality negative emotions don't have anything to do with the positive actions of Love because actions and feelings are two different things. We are here to act on the Love that was given to us. To me that means emotions shouldn't ultimately effect the outcome of Love in someones life. What if feelings were meant to produce another action? What if feelings were meant to produce perseverance? When we persevere through our emotions we experience joy. When we don't persevere, we experience sadness or other emotions. Love never changed through either path of perseverance, right? So if Love doesn't change, and emotions do, then love and emotions must be separate.
In my own life, I feel like it's going to be extremely important to keep reminding myself of the difference in emotions and love. I already know the difference, but in the heat of the moment I don't always make the best choices because my feelings get the best of me.I'm in the process of learning to trust God when it comes to my emotions, just like I'm learning how to trust Him when it comes to love. They are two separate things, and I need to fully learn how to treat them that way. Otherwise I'm going to continue this awful cycle of walking away from the church when I don't feel connected. Even Jesus was disconnected from God on the cross when He took our sin. Our sin is the reason we feel disconnected from God. But God proved that he loves us even after we sin when he rise Jesus from the grave! I pray that I can understand what it means to love God with everything I am.
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