How to Emotionally Agree with God
I recently did a post on how to come into agreement with other people; your spouse, your boss, your friends, whoever. This post presented the 3 parts of agreement, which I’ll summarize here.
1) Logical Agreement. Is this what you THINK we should do?
2) Emotional Agreement. Is this what you WANT to do?
3) Spiritual Agreement. Do you have a PEACE in your spirit that this is what God wants you to do?
Often, we charge off after some decision when we have logical agreement with our spouse or the other party, but there’s no emotional agreement. They never wanted to do that thing in the first place. Their heart’s not in it. They feel bullied or coerced into it. And when it ends in disaster, we’re shocked because we went out of our way to make sure everybody was on board.
My point in that post was, if you’re not in agreement in all 3 areas, you’re not in agreement. You need to go back and pray more, both individually and together, asking the Lord to give you agreement.
I had a revelation that this applies to our agreement with God also. So often in the church, we make this mistake. Well, here’s the Bible verse! Let me just quote it for you. There you go! Problem solved! Not necessarily. There are exceptions, but in general, we can’t argue people into the Kingdom of God by hitting them over the head with Bible verses.
Even with people in the church, we can’t solve deep problems with quippy Christian answers and flippantly quoted Bible verses.
Now, just cool your jets. I’m not knocking the Bible. It’s God’s word. It’s living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It’s got everything we need for life and godliness. God often speaks to us through his word. It’s powerful.
But it’s powerful because it hits something more than our logic, more than our intellect. It’s powerful when it hits our heart. It’s powerful when it hits our emotions.
So often we in the church aim to bring the culture into intellectual, logical, agreement with the Gospel. We try to win by reasoning with them. It’ll never work. Yes, it’s important to be able to rationally answer their questions and have a good rationale for our positions. But winning in logic is not going to change anybody’s mind. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And he works in the heart as well as the head.
The Holy Spirit works in the heart because that’s where the pain is. We’ll never bring the culture into emotional agreement with the Gospel unless we address their pain.
Take smoking for example. Everyone knows smoking will kill you. It gives you cancer. The Surgeon General has had a warning label on cigarettes for decades. Yet, according to the CDC, 45 million Americans still smoke, 8 million are living with diseases caused by smoking, and over 400,000 die prematurely every year from smoking.
Everyone knows smoking is bad for you. We all have intellectual, logical agreement on this one. So why do millions of people still smoke? Because they don’t emotional agree that it’s bad for you. Smoking did something for them that medicated their pain. Often, it made them feel accepted. Medicating the pain in their heart right now is worth more to them then the high risk of cancer later. So quitting is not what they want to do. No emotional agreement.
Are there truths about yourself where you’re not in emotional agreement with God? Yeah, I know the Bible says God loves me, but that’s because he loves people in general. He doesn’t really love me. Maybe you’re in intellectual, logical agreement with God’s love for you, but you’re not in emotional agreement.
The Christian journey of being sanctified is the process of coming into emotional agreement with God’s love. It’s coming into emotional agreement that, no what the circumstance, God is good.
So how do we come into emotional agreement with God’s truth? Here are 3 ways to emotionally agree with God about that promise in his word that you just don’t believe is true for you. You know the one.
1) Engage your will.
Be an actor playing a role. “If I actually believed this promise of God, what would I do?” And then do that thing. You’re not faking it till you make it. You’re helping yourself believe until you become it.
2) Say it out loud.
Our words have tremendous power over our lives. God built this into the fabric of the universe so we could bless those within our sphere of influence (including ourselves). But the reverse is also true. We can curse others and ourselves if we choose. That’s why people who say they can and people who say they can’t are both right.
When you’re fighting to believe God’s truth, repeat God’s promise out loud.
3) Tell people you trust.
Again, along the lines of saying God’s truth out loud, telling other people “this is what I believe” is hugely powerful. And the beauty of this is, they can say it back to you when you need to hear it. Bonus! It’s not just you. You’re not alone. Others you trust are agreeing with you about this promise of God over your life. That’s uber-powerful in the spirit!
So how about you? What is that thing you believe intellectually and logically, but struggle to believe emotionally, in your heart? You can practice #3 above by telling us in the comments, and we’ll agree with you. Or maybe you’ve come through a season of learning to emotionally agree with God about something. Tell us your story in the comments; it will help others. And please share this post on social media if you think it would bless someone else.
Is faith and fear emotions? Unless this is so, why do I really need to emotionally agree with God for my tomorrow?
That’s a great question, Josemai! Logically agreement means, “That’s what I *think* we should do.” Emotional agreement means, “That’s what I *want* to do.” So if we’re in logical agreement with God about our tomorrow but not in emotionally agreement, we obey him out of obligation, because we have to. But our heart’s not in it. He wants a people who obey because of relationship with him, out of love, because they want to. Our heart’s not on board with God’s will for our life if we’re not in emotional agreement with him. Does that answer your question and help explain it better?
I need to come in agreement with God that he will never leave me nor forsake me. even when I step out of his will. I can’t forgive myself and my heart aches everyday and I’m so depressed because of my actions I have put my family in jeopardy.
Cheryl, Nothing you’ve done is bigger or stronger than the cross of Jesus. Forgiving yourself means letting go of what you hold against yourself. God doesn’t just tolerate you, Cheryl, he loves you. He smiles when he thinks of you. Being close to you warms his heart. I don’t know the situation, but I know he will be with you even in this. Janet and I would love to talk & pray with you if you want to send us a message on the “Contact Us” page.
Matthew 6:31-33 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of Godd above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
My life experience proves this is true over and over. So in my head I know this is true for yesterday and today. Still, trusting this is true for all my tomorrows is where emotionally I haven’t quite fully embraced. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but your post is so compelling, I knew I needed to.
Thank you for your transparency, Jane. It’s easy to agree with intellectually; it’s much harder to agree emotionally. I am right there with you. It’s a moment by moment thing.
“Blessed are those who mourn for they will find comfort “ I had to look at previous loss to once again realize that comfort did
come and the initial sorrow decreased and life continued with its ebbs and flows and normalcy!
I love your story Charlene!