Scripture is rich with evidence that supports God’s validation of emotionally healthy spirituality, and, yet, how often do we notice and/or experience that emotional health is minimized through the interpretation and teaching of Scripture? Sadly, many Christians use high-sounding spiritual concepts and are taught to read and interpret Scripture in a way that suppresses emotions, avoids hard truths, maintains control, or shuts down necessary relational conflict. But God invites us into a safe relationship to mature and deepen in emotional processing. Biblical emotional processing is not the absence of emotion, rather, it is bringing emotion into a relationship with God. Another way put, faith is not the absence of difficult emotions; it is learning to experience them in relationship with God.
Pete Scazzero states it beautifully in his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality:
To feel is to be human. To minimize or deny what we feel is a distortion of what it means to be image-bearers of our personal God. To the degree that we are unable to express our emotions, we remain impaired in our ability to love God, others, and ourselves well…. [O]ur feelings are also a component of what it means to be made in the image of God. To cut them out of your spirituality is to slice off a part of our humanity.¹
Scripture was never meant to help us escape our emotions. Rather, Scripture can teach us how to bring our whole emotional lives into relationship with God. This is an incredibly important and meaningful intersection of counseling, emotional health, and biblical theology, because Scripture itself actually gives people so much permission to experience and express emotion rather than suppress it. Scripture doesn’t eliminate emotion but gives emotion somewhere to go as demonstrated by the expansive emotional vocabulary in the Bible. People in scripture experienced: grief, anger, fear, anxiety, disappointment, loneliness, shame, joy, jealousy, confusion, longing, despair, frustration, hope, relief, tenderness, and, while not limited to, love. Remarkably, Scripture doesn’t sanitize these experiences.
The psalms, for example, demonstrate a rich example of biblical emotional processing. David cries out, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1).
This passage is not only raw, it also highlights something Scripture itself gives us permission to do: tell God the truth about our emotional experience without pretending that experience isn’t there.
David doesn’t begin with:“God is good, so I shouldn’t feel this way.”
He begins with: “How long?”
He’s experiencing what feels like abandonment and silence from God. Notice the language: “Will you forget me forever?” David’s perception is not necessarily the theological reality—God has not actually forgotten him. But David’s emotional experience is real, and he brings that experience directly to God. He feels forgotten and lets God know. David doesn’t begin with trust by pretending he isn’t hurting. He moves toward trust by bringing his hurt into God’s presence. God desires this and encourages us to do the same.
Yet, in order to do this we often have to explore and understand the differences between suppression, bypassing, and processing.
Emotional suppression communicates, “I shouldn’t feel this.” The emotion is pushed down, ignored, minimized, or judged. For example, in 2 Corinthians 10:5 we read, “Take every thought captive.” This can be misused and interpreted as, “You shouldn’t think that way, which can lead people to become frightened of their own thoughts.
A more careful interpretation asks what Paul means by thoughts in the context of the passage (i.e., ideas, arguments, and belief systems that set themselves against the knowledge of God) and recognizes that having a thought isn’t equivalent to believing it or acting upon it.
Spiritual bypassing says, “I don’t need to deal with this because I know God is in control.” A true theological statement can become a way of avoiding an emotional reality that still needs attention. For example, in 1 Peter 5:7 we read, “Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” Spiritual bypassing says, “You’ve given it to God, so you shouldn’t still be upset about it.”
Yet, notice what the verse assumes: there are worries and cares to give. The emotional experience isn’t the issue. Again, the invitation is to bring the emotional burden into a relationship with God. Casting our cares on God doesn’t mean pretending we don’t have cares. He doesn’t ask us to hide and minimize. It means we don’t have to carry them alone. He wants to walk intimately with us as we traverse being human with all of its realities and emotional loads.
Healthy biblical processing voices “This is what I’m feeling. God, and I am bringing it to You.” The person neither worships the emotion nor rejects it. Psalm 13 highlights this so well. There is acknowledgment, exploration, bringing it before God, and allowing truth to shape the response. God desires for us to grow in biblical maturity which isn’t learning how to feel less. It’s learning how to faithfully bring what we feel into the presence of God, where trust can develop without requiring us to deny what hurts.
Feel → Name → Express → Bring to God → Surrender → Remain present
Scazzero wonderfully states it this way, “God intends that we mature in learning to recognize how he speaks and guides us through our feelings.”¹
While emotions are not always accurate interpretations of reality, they are meaningful signals about our internal experience. They can help us grow in curiosity and compassion. So, rather than immediately correcting an emotion with Scripture or assuming the emotion must be true, we can become curious about what it is communicating. Perhaps there is an unmet need, relational hurt, past wound, fear, or belief underneath it.
Again, Psalm 13 models this beautifully. David says, “How long will you forget me?” His feeling of being forgotten is real, even though God has not actually forgotten him. Instead of suppressing or correcting his emotion, David brings it honestly before God—and eventually moves toward trust. There is space to be in process and wrestle with God.
Healthy biblical processing doesn’t require us to believe everything we feel or dismiss what we feel. It invites us to listen to our emotions, bring them honestly to God, and allow Scripture and discernment to help us understand what is true and how to respond.
A helpful framework to healthy biblical processing is:
Notice → Name → Bring → Explore → Receive → Respond
Notice: What am I experiencing?
Name: What emotion is present?
Bring: Can I bring this honestly before God?
Explore: What might this emotion be communicating?
Receive: What does God’s character and truth speak into this experience?
Respond: What faithful action is appropriate now?
At its core, healthy biblical processing invites us to bring our whole selves before God—our grief, anger, fear, disappointment, joy, and, while not limited to, uncertainty—without shame or the pressure to immediately make sense of them. Healthy biblical processing is not about making emotions the authority or using Scripture to silence them. It is about creating space to honestly acknowledge what is happening within us, bring it into the presence of God, discern what is true, and allow His truth and character to shape our response. We don’t have to choose between emotional honesty and faith. They are not at odds or even enemies. We can be honest about what we feel while remaining anchored in who God is. In fact, Scripture wonderfully shows us that this kind of honesty can be part of what deepens our relationship with Him.
God, help us bring our emotions honestly to You without shame or fear. Give us wisdom to understand what they may be revealing, discernment to recognize what is true, and grace to receive Your presence in the midst of them. Teach us to trust You without having to suppress what we feel, and guide us to respond with wisdom and faith. Amen.
-Carlyn Wood – learn more about working with Carlyn here!
Reference:
- Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. Zondervan, 2017.
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