Emotions in the Bible: What does God say about our emotions?

Are your emotions leading you, or are you leading your emotions? It’s time to regain control of those feelings of chaos, bring every thought into God’s light, look at a list of emotions in the Bible, and live a life anchored in biblical truth.

So many of us lead with our emotions. We say things like “I’m sad so I can’t do _____ today.” I’m guilty, I admit it. But God says, “I called you to do _____. It’s not about how you feel, it’s about what I say.”  It’s time that we stop letting our feelings drive the bus and make all the decisions in our lives.  The Lord created and gave us the gift of biblical emotions for a purpose.  When we gain control of our emotions, we can follow Him and live with our God-given peace and joy. 

Why Did The Lord Create Us With Emotions?

I often wonder why I’m such an emotional person. I even cry at commercials. If you’re honest, you cry at commercials too.   I get choked up when I share my amputation story, especially when I talk about my family.

So why are we all so emotional? 

Genesis 1:27 says So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

Since we’re made in God’s image, and we are emotional, He must be emotional too.

What the Bible says about emotions and a few examples of why the Lord gave us the ability to feel them:  

• God wants us to enjoy life. He didn’t want us to go through a miserable, sad, and lonely life. 
• We were created for His pleasure and He wanted us to have pleasure too. 
• He created us to reflect His image. He had emotions so we have emotions.
• We have emotions so that we can meaningfully relate to others. We were created for relationships and to enjoy them. 

All Emotions are Valid and Allow Us to Represent God in the World 

They give people a glimpse into the heart of our Heavenly Father. We reflect on how He can be happy, sad, angry, and frustrated. The Lord feels emotions and created mankind to have emotions as a reflection of Him. Let’s look at a few of them.

God’s People Can Be Overcome with Sadness

Many weep when happy or excited. When we look at what the Bible says about emotions, we’ll see that some of our favorite Bible characters show that they weep when sad. Here are a few Scriptures on emotions in the Bible. 

Genesis 43:30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. 

2 Samuel 18:33a And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! 

Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  

John 11:35  Jesus wept. 

Although this is the shortest verse in the Bible it’s also very powerful. Many things make our Creator sad, like the sin of the world, unbelief, disobedience,  idolatry, and rejection. In the last verse, the death of Lazarus made Jesus sad.  There’s no doubt that the Lord is saddened by the people that He created spending eternity in hell. This amazing Bible study offers a deep dive into God’s thoughts on sadness.

We Can Love Because God Loved Us

Feeling and expressing emotions is a part of being human, and made in God’s image. Our ability to love is necessary. When we look at what the Bible says about emotions, we see that God’s greatest commandment is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and to love everyone else more than we love ourselves. 

John 3:16 God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

It’s important to grow your biblical knowledge as you learn how God gives us the ability to love everyone, even the unlovable. 

It's time to start walking in the truth of God's Word and learn how to deal with emotions biblically! #Emotions #GodsWord #GrowInFaith #BibleStudy #OneExceptionalLife  Share on X

Emotions in the Bible – Joy and Peace Come From Jesus

Joy and peace are possible in difficult times because they come from Jesus alone. Closing the gap in your relationship with the Lord is important if you struggle with joy and peace. 

Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 

John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 

Jesus has more than enough peace and joy, that He can give it away like it says here in this example of an emotions Bible verse.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

The gift of biblical emotions like peace and joy comes directly from Jesus. They’re attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit. The closer we are to the Vine, the more fruit we will bear.

John 14:10-11 These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full: When the disciple fails to abide in the love of Jesus and thereby fails to keep His commandments, that disciple will not experience the fullness of joy Jesus promised to those who do abide in His love and obedience.

He says “That My joy may remain in you.” The joy of Jesus isn’t the same as what is commonly understood as happiness or excitement. The joy of Jesus is not the pleasure of a life of ease; it is the exhilaration of being right with God, and consciously walking in His love and care. We can have that joy — we can have His joy — and have it as an abiding presence.

He says, “that your joy may be full.” This is the result of abiding in Jesus’ love and the obedience that flows from that abiding relationship.

Do We Always Have To Be Angry?

Jesus, in His greatest commandment, is to love God above all else and then love your neighbor as yourself. So where does the emotion of anger fit into this love? God has plenty to say about anger. Conquer anger with love with some of the best Scriptures on the topic.

Whenever God gets angry, it is always connected to sin and rebellion. But His anger is different from ours. God’s anger over sin comes from His holiness, righteousness, and justice. He is a just God. He wants repentance. 

Psalm 145:8 says The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; Slow to anger, and of great mercy. 

Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things doth the LORD hate: Yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, Feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, And he that soweth discord among brethren.

Because we are created in God’s image, and after His likeness, if He can get angry, so can we. God is slow to anger, so we should be too. We should be careful to have righteous anger, meaning it’s okay to be angry at what makes our Heavenly Father angry like the 7 things in Proverbs 6 previously mentioned. 

How Your Emotions Direct Your Life

Do you ever get so sad, discouraged, or frustrated that you just want to close up shop on whatever you’re doing, grab the ice cream, wrap up in a blanket, and turn on Hulu?

You may think that you want to cry, have a right to be discouraged, you’re frustrated or want to be left alone to dwell on your problems. These are all emotions that influence your actions in one way or another

Of course, you’re entitled to all of those feelings. But if you dwell, you’re heading down a negative pathway. Because, what you focus on, grows.

If you want more sadness, focus on being sad. If you want more discouragement, focus on being discouraged. And if you want more frustration, focus on being frustrated.

God gave us emotions in the Bible for a reason. That is, so we can enjoy life, meaningfully relate to others, and so we can reflect the image of God, and represent Him in the world. He doesn’t want us to dwell on our negative emotions but recognize them and make good choices.

How do we deal with emotions biblically and why do we struggle with emotions like these? All emotions are valid, but why do they have so much strength in our lives?

Emotions are good when you don’t let them drive the bus with your decisions. Let’s look at some examples.

It’s good to allow fear to keep you away from snakes. But living in a state of fear that something bad will happen is a bad use of your energy. Instead, capture that thought and recognize that it’s misleading you, cast it at the feet of Jesus, and trust Him with it.

There’s a difference between being angry at your husband because he didn’t remember your anniversary and having righteous anger at the sinful state of the world.  With one, you can chalk it up to the fact that he’s overwhelmed at work and didn’t even know what day it was. With the other, you can do something in your community that can help you make a small difference and then pray to God to handle the rest of the world, 

You can be sad because your children have left the nest. But sadness for a little while compared to dark depression is unhealthy. Remember, you raised them well and now they’re living on their own successfully.

You can be discouraged because of something you had hoped would happen and then didn’t versus becoming angry and taking your anger out on the people around you.

Do you have self-doubt because you feel you’re not worthy? Recognize that the Lord knew you before you were born, He formed you and created you to be worthy of His gifts. And if you are a born-again child of God, in Jesus Christ you are:

• Blessed with every spiritual blessing 
• Chosen to be holy and blameless
• Adopted
• Accepted
• And so much more

1 Peter 1:3‭-‬4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

Don’t let your emotions direct your life! They were given to serve you, but become liabilities when they’re not under your control. It’s important to learn how to deal with emotions biblically. 

Consider the Thoughts That Dominate Your Life

It’s important to start with a relationship with the Lord.  That means salvation! You must repent of your sins, trust that the blood of Jesus covers your sins, and ask Him to save your soul.

At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live within you to guide you. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you cannot have victory over your feelings.

Then the work of the Holy Spirit exposes false messages, which are lies from the enemy. These false messages drive our identity, decisions, and interactions with others.

Taking Your Thoughts Captive

God says we need to stay away from the conformity of this world, renew our minds, take our thoughts captive, and bring every captivity into the obedience of Christ.

Romans 12:1-2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

We have a natural or carnal way of looking at things. To battle against our carnal way of thinking, we need to bring our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Jesus.

Did you know that you CAN choose to stop your thoughts and make them obedient to Christ? Thoughts of anger, fear, greed, bitter thoughts, and evil thoughts, are part of every thought that must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Napoleon Hill summarized this statement when he said, “If you direct your thoughts and control your emotions, you will ordain your destiny.” 

In other words, if you deliberately govern your thoughts, you can manage your emotions instead of allowing them to steamroll over you. 

It’s as simple as deciding that you will not be angry today. It’s making a decision and backing it up with the attitude that the only anger you’re willing to entertain is righteous anger at the same things that make God angry.

If you have doubts about your worthiness, but God’s Word says He knew you before you were born, and sent His Son to die for you because He loved you, then you can know that you are chosen and beloved.

As you choose how you feel and bring your beliefs in line with what God says about you, the Lord works to make you into the person He created you to be.

Here’s a simple formula for taking your thoughts captive:

1. Grab the thought
2. Then ask, does it align with God’s Word?
3. If it does, then that thought serves you.
4. If it doesn’t, then we replace the lies and carnal thoughts from the enemy with the truth of God’s Word. 

If the messages that repeatedly play in your mind do not line up with God’s Word, they are false and must be changed. You must confront your old, negative beliefs to have control over them. Because only then can you choose how you respond.

It’s time to start walking in the truth of God’s Word and learn how to deal with emotions biblically!

Ask yourself, “What is the negative thought I’m having and what am I doing to make that thought occur?” Then ask  “What feelings and beliefs am I having because of this thought?”

Here are a couple of examples:

You can be angry because someone cut you off in traffic, or you can replace that anger with forgiveness for that person. Consider that they may have been late for an appointment and needed to get somewhere faster than you.

You can be sad because your friend canceled on you at the last minute, or you can be happy because now you have some free time to spend doing a task you were struggling to find time for like spending time with the Lord.

It’s all perspective and choice.

• Instead of living with anger and bitterness, choose forgiveness.
• Instead of living with impatience, choose patience.
• Instead of holding onto hurt, choose happiness.
• Instead of focusing on the negative, choose to focus on the positive. Count your blessings and start or build a gratitude habit.

Remember, what you focus on, grows. You get to choose to walk in a renewed mindset. When you choose to renew your mindset and take on the mindset of Christ, it changes how you view things and how you respond.

Choose to Replace the Lies with the Truth from God’s Word

You get to choose to get rid of your negative thoughts, mindset, and negative outlook on life. Face what’s going on, acknowledge what you’re thinking and feeling, but don’t focus on it. Don’t let it dictate everything you do.

1 Cor. 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

When a negative thought comes, we have the mind of Christ who can push it out of our minds and replace it with Godly thoughts. This takes practice, but with persistence, it does get easier. We must pay attention to what we think about, and not allow our minds to run rampant. Part of our spiritual armor is the helmet of salvation, which protects our mind. 

We play untrue thoughts through our heads so frequently that we convince ourselves that they’re true.

Look at this from the perspective of our weight. As women, most of us are sensitive to what we eat. We think that if I eat one more cookie, I’m going to get fat. We know that’s not true, but that’s an example of a lie the enemy feeds us.

I have always been sensitive about my weight. When I was in third grade. I was at a new school, and our class was putting on a circus. Already insecure, my teacher made me the fat lady in the circus. That was a horrible point in my life, and it left me with a lot of mindset issues around my body. My negative mindset allowed me to feed into that. I thought that I was fat, even though I wasn’t.

Science tells us that repetitive thoughts over time become physical ruts in the brain that affect our reasoning, choices, and eventually our beliefs.

Telling myself over and over that I had a weight problem that carried through my high school years and into my adult life. It doesn’t matter if I tell myself that I’m fat or I’m stupid or I’m worthless, God’s Word says otherwise. Take a look at the first chapter in Ephesians.

He says:

• I am His Workmanship
• I am chosen
• I am redeemed
• I am bought for a price.
• I am the image and glory of god
• I am blessed with every spiritual blessing
• I am accepted and beloved
• I am forgiven

Do you see how the enemy focuses so much on your thought life because from it your whole life proceeds? If you look at the lie that I was told, it does not align with the beautiful soul that God tells me I am. 

Ways We Manage Our Emotions

There are so many ways that we can manage our emotions. Some are good, yet some don’t serve us the way they should.

Unhealthy Ways We Often Manage Our Emotions

All emotions are valid, but some people believe being emotional is a sign of weakness. Denying our feelings forces those feelings to be trapped within us.

Other times we recognize we have feelings but refuse to express them or we express them in an unhealthy manner. Many times, we just want to curl up on the couch with a blanket, turn on Hulu, and drown our sorrows in chips and Ice cream.

Drowning out our emotions with busyness, hobbies, mood-altering substances, or addictive behaviors isn’t healthy either. When we don’t address them, the pain never really goes away. So it grows and causes other problems.

Lastly, we need to express all our emotions but without a filter, discipline, or discretion. 

Healthy Ways To Handle Our Emotions

It’s important to exercise the privilege of prayer and Bible study. Prayer and Bible study are very powerful methods to help you handle the things that aren’t serving you. Through prayer and close communion with God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, you can learn Scriptures on emotions and work closely to overcome the feelings and stresses that are causing anxiety. Too much stress and anxiety can cause health problems if left unchecked.

Be intentional and commit to daily time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study because then you’ll get closer to the Lord.  As you learn what’s in His Word and you learn His character, you’ll learn to understand His promises and expectations.

All of this, so that emotions don’t direct your life, the Word of God does. This focused action leads to living with intention, which helps you find joy, peace, and contentment.

As a result, we can expect God’s healing. There’s no reason to believe God won’t answer our prayers – even instantly. He can heal our emotional bondage. Our feelings find their roots in the beliefs we focus on and the messages we repeat to ourselves. Our emotions are the products of our thought life.

Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

You could be living with lies that you have repeated to yourself over the years, as you make decisions in your life about your circumstances. 

Digging into the why’s and how’s of your emotions and learn how to manage them properly so that you can finally live in the joy and peace that the Lord intends for you. 

Back to my weight example. You may have been a little chubby as a child, so all your life, you told yourself you were fat, when truly you weren’t. But that seed that was planted in your head when you were young stayed with you. So you struggle with your weight as an adult and every time you look in the mirror you groan. 

Joy and peace are possible in difficult times because they come from Jesus Himself. Closing the gap in your relationship with the Lord is important if you struggle with joy and peace.  #Emotions #GodsWord #GrowInFaith #BibleStudy… Share on X

Confession Time! 

I do that. In addition to weight, many surgeries have left my body completely different than what I thought it would look like.

For us to be free, those lies must be removed and replaced with the powerful principles of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

That’s a hard reminder as I’m looking in the mirror, groaning over every lump, wrinkle, and scar I see, In those moments I’m not thinking about my body being a temple of the Holy Spirit! Although it’s not natural to see myself like that, it’s still the truth. Your body is a divine gift. It’s a temple. It’s a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.

Only through faith and belief, God will heal you of the emotions that harm you. Emotions are good when you don’t let them drive the bus with every decision you make. Think about what you can do daily to make progress towards managing the gift of biblical emotions to create a joyful life.

Let’s face it, joy, peace, contentment, and fulfillment are all gifts from the Lord.  Yes, they are gifts. They’re easier to accept when you have a closer relationship with Jesus.

Resources for Dealing with Emotions

• Work with me 1:1 as your mentor. Schedule a Joyful Living Strategy Call 
• Shop my Bible studies, which vary on different emotions and topics.
• I offer other faith-building resources, planners, and inspiration in The Shop at One Exceptional Life 

If you’re tired of letting your emotions dictate your life, ready to step out of frustration and pain to process and heal your emotional wounds and start enjoying your life so that you can wake up in the morning with a spark for serving the Lord, your family, and community, Let me introduce you to The One Exceptional Journey Through the Emotions of the Bible, Bible Study Series for the best Scriptures on emotions. 

For the Christian woman who wants to develop her faith, grow in her peace and joy, use God’s Word to learn how to deal with emotions biblically, and work through all the emotions that pop up during every struggle she faces. They are the perfect solution for the woman, tired of feeling frustrated and in pain, and wants to start processing and healing her emotional wounds.

Your Turn

You don’t have to be stuck any longer on the hamster wheel of being led every which way by your emotions. Where will you start? What questions do you have about Emotions in the Bible? What are your favorite emotions Bible verses?