Receive fresh revelation and a new love for the Lord as you follow Jesus through this devotional which highlights the teachings and actions of Jesus relating to human emotions. Each devotion has a practical application of Jesus’ teaching that will help you to put these great truths into practice.
Andrew Wommack Ministries
Day 1
Scriptures: Luke 1:39-56, Deuteronomy 30:19
In Luke 1:39-56, Mary makes a very clear distinction between her soul magnifying the Lord and her spirit rejoicing.
Our soul is the part of us that is considered to be our personality. It is our intellect, emotions, and will. Our spirit is the part that gets changed at salvation, and it is always operating in ‘love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:22-23). That’s true whether our souls (feelings and emotions) ‘feel’ it or not.
Many believers wait until their emotions feel like praising the Lord before they enter in to worship. They think it’s hypocritical to act like they are rejoicing in the Lord if they don’t ‘feel’ it. But our spirits are always rejoicing in the Lord. It’s actually hypocritical to go by our feelings and not magnify the Lord with our souls when our born again spirits are already rejoicing.
Our born again spirits are always in tune with the Lord and walking in the joy of the Lord. Our flesh is often dominated by what it sees and feels.
Sometimes we don’t feel like praising the Lord, but the choice rests with our souls. If we choose to praise the Lord, our emotions will follow.
The decision is yours (Dt. 30:19).
Today, choose to walk in the joy of the Lord.
Day 2
Scriptures: John 2:12-14, Ephesians 4:26
Jesus brought the message of ‘love your enemies to the world and demonstrated it in such a way that some people have forgotten instances like this when Jesus showed anger. Anger can also be a godly emotion.
Ephesians 4:26 tells us to ‘be angry and sin not.’ This means there is a righteous type of anger that is not sinning. This is why we are told to hate evil (Ps. 45:7; 119:104, 163; Pro. 8:13; Rom. 12:9).
Ephesians 4:26 goes on to say, ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.’ That doesn’t mean that it’s alright to be angry during daylight as long as we repent by nightfall. Rather, it is speaking of this righteous type of anger. We are never to let it rest. Don’t ever put it to bed, but keep yourself stirred up against the things of the devil.
The key to distinguishing between righteous anger and carnal anger is to discern our anger’s motive and object. Godly anger is directed at the devil with no consideration of self. If we are angry with people, it’s carnal (Eph. 6:12). And if our motivation is self-serving, then it’s wrong.
Day 3
Scripture: John 1:43-51
In John 1:43-51, Nathanael suffered from a skepticism that afflicts many people today. However, to his credit, he came to the Lord and gave Him a chance to prove who He was.
We can only speculate what it was that Jesus saw Nathanael doing under that fig tree (v. 50), but it is very clear that it was something that proved beyond a doubt that Jesus was the Christ.
Jesus didn’t rebuke Nathanael for his doubts; instead, he removed them. The Lord has an answer for every doubt that we have. We need to be without guile before the Lord as Nathanael was (v. 47) and come to Him when we are plagued with doubts instead of running from Him or avoiding Him.
Jesus knows our frame. He remembers that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). It is not a sin to doubt, but it becomes sin if we harbor those doubts. We should do as Nathanael did and bring our doubts to the Lord. Let’s allow Him to deal with them.
Day 4
Scriptures: Matthew 9:23-31, Mark 5:35-43, Luke 8:49-56
Jesus told Jairus to ‘believe only,’ implying that faith and fear cannot operate in us simultaneously. This is also why James tells us not to be double-minded or waiver (Jas. 1:5-8). Fear will negate faith. We cannot have both thoughts of faith and thoughts of unbelief at the same time.
Fear and faith are opposing forces. Fear is actually faith in reverse. Fear is believing something or someone other than God. Therefore, fear makes us subject to Satan and his death just as faith makes us recipients of all that God has to offer. This is the reason Jesus told Jairus, ‘Fear not.’ Jairus’ fear would have sealed his daughter’s death.
Instead of building huge amounts of faith to overcome our fears and unbelief, a simpler method is to remove our fears by cutting off their source. Then, our simple ‘child-like’ faith that remains will do the job. It doesn’t take big faith – just pure faith.
Where does fear come from? Second Timothy 1:7 says, ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.’ It doesn’t come from God. The way that fear can come upon us is that we take our attention off of Jesus and put it on our situation.
Fear or doubt cannot ‘just overcome’ us. We have to let it in. In the same way that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, fear comes by hearing or seeing something contrary to God’s Word. We would not be tempted with fear or doubt if we didn’t consider things that Satan uses to minister that fear and doubt.
Satan tries to distract us with thinking about our problems. No problem is too big for God. We should cast our concern about the problem over on God and just keep our eyes on Jesus, the Word.
Day 5
Scriptures: John 9:6-27, Ephesians 3:19
In John 9, this man showed great courage in confronting these religious leaders. Even Peter later backed down for fear of this same group of men (Lk. 22:54-62). Certainly, one thing that gave him this boldness was that he knew what Jesus had done for him. And even beyond the physical healing, he knew that Jesus had healed him because He loved him.
It’s our security in the Lord’s love for us that gives us the strength to face rejection from others. As Proverbs 28:1 puts it, ‘the righteous are bold as a lion.’ The antidote for fear of men is a large dose of the love of God.
One of the greatest truths of the Bible and one of the hardest to comprehend is that we are the objects of God’s love. God didn’t just pity us or feel some sense of moral obligation to save us. He saved us because of His infinite love for us (Jn. 3:16). An experiential understanding of God’s love is the key to being filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).
Paul prays in Ephesians 3:19 that we would experience the love of God, which surpasses mere knowledge about it. How can we know the love of God if it surpasses knowledge? This sounds like a contradiction. It’s not. The knowing is experiencing it. The end result of having understanding and experiential knowledge of God’s love is that we will be filled with all the fullness of God. God’s love is the key that opens the door to everything that God is. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8).
It’s not just a casual acquaintance with God’s love that we need, but an intimate understanding and experiential knowledge of the depths of God’s love. Just as a tree’s roots provide stability and nourishment for the tree, so our revelation of God’s love is the foundation upon which everything else we receive from God is built.
Day 6
Scripture: John 11:44
From John 11:44, symbolically, Lazarus is like many Christians. The Bible speaks of us passing from death unto new life when we get born again. But it is also true that in the physical and emotional realm, we bring our ‘graveclothes’ from our old life with us (i.e., habits, attitudes, etc.), and we need to be ‘loosed’ to enjoy our new life fully.
Our emotions and attitudes follow what we think. When we focus our attention on our problems, they are magnified out of proportion. When we neglect our problems and think about God’s provision, the answer is magnified, and the problem shrinks. Whatever we think upon is going to dominate us. If we think about depressing things, we’ll be depressed. If we think about uplifting things, it will uplift us. If we think, ‘by His stripes, we are healed,’ we’ll be healed. If we think on sickness, we’ll be sick.
Godly contentment isn’t dependent upon circumstances. That is totally the opposite way most people think today. No one desires depression, but very few feel any responsibility or authority to maintain positive emotions in the face of negative circumstances. They think emotions follow circumstances. That’s not true. Emotions follow the way we think, and we can choose to think about things that are lovely, true, good reports, and so forth regardless of our circumstances. How we think determines how we respond emotionally.
Focus your attention on the invisible truths of the spiritual realm that are eternal instead of the visible things of this physical world that will pass away.