Emotions 01 Emotions in the Face of Suffering

Your emotions are an overflow and expression of your heart, revealing what you care most about. Your heart is at the center of who you are as a person and is always living in relationship with God. In this way emotions can help you notice and then evaluate what you love. But emotions can at times be confusing, making it hard to know and express your thoughts, desires, and concerns. In response to this confusion, people tend to either embrace or avoid their emotions. What you will learn through this study is that God invites you to engage with your emotions by engaging with him.

Using Scripture, stories and personal reflection, this study presents a biblical understanding of emotions with the goal of helping you learn how to bring your emotions to God and how to enter the emotions of the people you love. Through this study you will explore the close connection your emotions have with your heart. This study includes many applications for ministry to others.

This video and workbook study was designed for use by individuals and groups. The videos were recorded at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation’s 2016 National Conference — Emotions.


Lesson 1: Emotions in the Face of Suffering – Joni Eareckson Tada (38:42)

In this lesson we hear the testimony of Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni shares what life is like with quadriplegia and chronic pain. This talk focuses on her emotional experiences in the face of suffering, and how God used Scripture to shape her experience. Joni shares biblical truth and personal wisdom that she has gained throughout her life.

Lesson 2: Feeling Bad about Feeling Bad – Winston T. Smith (37:20)

This lesson begins with the question, “Do you ever feel bad for feeling bad?” People often ask you how you feel, but this question goes one step further. It asks you to consider how you feel about your feelings. How comfortable are you with what’s going on inside? The attitudes you have about an emotion directly shape your experience of it. This lesson explores the emotions Jesus experienced and expressed in John 11.

Lesson 3: Why Do I Feel How I Feel? – Alasdair Groves (40:07)

Emotions are hard to define and to grasp intellectually. What words do you use to describe your emotions? How can you better understand what is going on inside of you? We learn in Matthew 6:21 that emotions assign value to what we love and reveal what we worship. This lesson looks at the close connection our emotions have with our hearts.

Lesson 4: What Do I Do with My Feelings? – Alasdair Groves (42:06)

This lesson focuses on what to do with our emotions. People often take one of two approaches. The first is to embrace: feelings are everything. The second is to avoid: strong and silent is the way to go! A biblical alternative to both extremes is to engage your emotions by engaging with God. This lesson offers practical ways to engage God with your emotions.

Lesson 5: Emotions and Relationships – Winston T. Smith (45:27)

In relationships emotions are the difference between knowing about someone and really knowing someone. Emotions help us to enter into the lives of others as our hearts are moved by their hearts. This lesson casts a vision for how to enter a person’s experience through emotions and explores specific relational skills that are the fruit of sincere love (Romans 12:15).

Lesson 6: For Better or For Worse – Aaron Sironi (49:09)

This lesson provides a biblical framework for building marital intimacy for couples in distress. It begins by looking at the foundation of marriage and explores the remarkable gift of the one-flesh union. Aaron uses counseling examples to illustrate the important role emotions play in a couple’s intimacy and shows how to help marriages in distress. This final lesson will be particularly useful for counselors and couples who want to cultivate or repair intimacy in a marriage.