Deeply Loved: A 5-Day Devotional to Feel Seen & Known by GodNäide

Day #3: Learning to Think About and Feel Your Faith

Let's be honest—it's easy to get stuck in our heads when it comes to our relationship with Jesus.

This was certainly true for me (Bill). Growing up, there was pressure from my family to be extra responsible. I responded by earning excellent grades and excelling in sports. My performance secured the approval of everybody around me.

Everything worked out just fine until I entered the last year of my studies to become a Christian counselor in college. My teacher asked me about my feelings, and I realized I only knew what I was thinking and doing. I never knew my emotions were important or that anybody would care to see and understand them.

Similarly, it might feel easier to keep your faith in the realm of thinking and doing. But stuffing your emotions prevents your whole person from receiving and reflecting God's love (Matthew 22:37).

You can move from knowing about Jesus in your head to authentically knowing him in your real-life experience.

It's true that thinking is a significant part of apprenticeship to Jesus. The Bible teaches us to pay attention to our thinking—this is especially important when it comes to the truth of God's Word (Philippians 4:8; 2 Timothy 3:16). It's also true that a genuine, loving relationship with Jesus leads to an overflow of loving action to those around you (John 13:34-35).

Yet thinking and doing usually are not the parts of our faith that get overlooked. Emotions more frequently get left out or judged, as if they’re a bothersome whining child.

Emotions are God-created aspects of our lives and relationships. Humans are actually designed by God to both feel our thoughts and think about our feelings.

This kind of whole-soul living enables us to experience life more fully and bond with each other more deeply. It makes our relationships more personal and draws us closer together.

We can’t very well cultivate deep intimacy in our relationships with people unless we share our emotions with each other. The same is true in your relationship with God.

Jesus is no stranger to the importance of sharing his feelings with the God he knows as “Abba” or “Papa.”

The Bible gives us a blueprint for how we can trust God as a caring Papa because of our Savior’s life and sacrificial death: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Your High Priest gives you permission to bring the real you to Papa God and pour your heart out to him. It's through an honest and empathic relationship that you draw from his mercy for your sins and weaknesses to help you to stand on the firm foundation of knowing that you are deeply loved by God.

Receiving empathy from God might be a new concept for you. Thankfully, Jesus shows us how to live with authentic faith in God and grow in grace (Luke 2:52).

It’s helpful to meditate on scriptures where Jesus shares his distress with God and his friends in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-39), draws on Abba's empathy at the cross (Matthew 27:45-47), or teaches us to pray simple prayers to our "Papa" (Matthew 6:5-9).

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross to forgive our sins and for giving us full access to know God as a loving Father. Help us to come boldly and confidently before our Papa as we go deeper in intimacy and formation through his unlimited grace. Amen.