Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Getting Healthy Emotionally - Part Two

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Yesterday I brought up the topic of our Emotional Quotient (EQ) ...

Some of the experts have suggested that most of the emotional problems among believers stem from two things: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness and the failure to give out that unconditional grace and forgiveness to others.

Perhaps this is why the unmerciful slave in Matthew's parable (Matthew 18:21-35) was unable to release his fellow slave from debt. The unmerciful slave never fully understood how much he himself was released from his own debt; he never really believed that he was forgiven and, therefore, was unable to truly release his fellow servant.

Becoming a healthy congregation means becoming an emotionally healthy congregation. We've all noticed that when we became believers our problems didn't vanish. In fact, in some respects they got worse. Why? Because there was no more running away and self-deception. The Holy Spirit purposely brought our problems into focus so that we could bring them to God finally and deal with them together.

Let's pray for a functional theology. A head theology is not the answer. We need a theology of the Good News of God's awesome grace and forgiveness that penetrates deep into our souls (emotions) and affects how we walk and act and relate to one another. I know I need it.