Lots of people these days are uncomfortable with their emotions. I recently had a conversation with another Pastor and he said that he found many people were dead from the neck downwards. They just lived in their heads. They use thinking and logic to solve problems and guide them in all their decisions. The late Dale Carnegie is reported to have said that these people who claim to be driven by logic are in fact bristling with emotion. Why, for example did they buy their new car from a certain dealer rather than one which offered a better deal? The most probable answer would simply be that they liked the salesman! A person devoid of emotion is not a human being but a monstrosity. In every relationship of life emotion has is place. It must therefore be considered in our spiritual relationship with God. Intellect may supply reasons why we should obey God; will, may move us forward in service, but love for God is not kindled till our emotions are caught in greater or lesser degree. Everyone who can love another human being can love God. To a great extent the quality of love depends on the depth of our self-giving to the loved one. Someone has said, “Love is the complete abandonment of personality to personality.” That is the secret of every great human love. It is also the secret of our love for God. The quality of our religious experience is largely determined by the extent of our self-abandonment to God. The reality of God is more vividly apprehended as we commit ourselves more completely to His will. What, in my life, am I unwilling to put under God’s control? Whatever it be, that is the cloud which obscures God’s face and prevents me giving myself to Jesus. A vital experience of God is possible to every normal person willing to give God complete control. We are reminded in Matthew 16: 24 that “if any man will come after Me let him deny himself.” Self-giving brings us face-to-face with Jesus.
John.
