I thought it would be good to address some of the common problems that cause people not to “feel good” and to show you the reason that you are so bothered by some of these issues.
One of the most important things to understand is that the way you feel emotionally is a result – it is an outcome of what you are thinking about. The Bible is crystal clear that what we think about, believe and desire is what leads us to feel, and act the way we do.
What you think, believe and desire in your heart is what causes you to feel depressed or have sorrow without hope, be happy, anxious, content or anything else. Our thoughts are a reflection of what is in our heart. (Proverbs 23:7) You can look at your heart as the control center of your being- the Bible does! (Proverbs 4:23)
We are warned to keep our heart, to watch over it to guard it and protect it because the heart is the place where all you take in with your eyes resides, all you take in with your ears lives, all you touch and smell is stored.
The heart of man is where your thoughts, beliefs, desires, will, soul, feelings, emotions and every other things about you that cannot be physically handled resides.
The Bible tells us that because of our fallen nature the heart is wicked and deceitful. Jer. 17:9
Even after salvation, the basic nature of the human heart is still self-willed and blind to its own corruption and propensity toward sin. We describe ourselves and others as having “a good heart” but honestly nothing could be further from the truth!
The heart of man is unbelievably wicked and sinful. So much so that we are unable to determine how bad it really is because it lies to us! It is like the color black trying to discern how black it is. The heart is where greed and envy and love of self are located.
Our minds are set upon pleasing self above all.
Where is the heart located? The Bible supports the idea that we are composed of essentially two parts:
Material- physical aspects of a person, blood, bones, tissue, organs
Immaterial- non-physical aspects of a person, mind, will, thoughts, beliefs, desires, feelings, emotions, soul, spirit. This is the heart.
The material part of us must work properly in most or at least a few respects for proper functioning and communication, and the immaterial part of us also must be well functioning because both of these aspects of humanity “play” off each other and make us what we are.
I understand that some theologians teach another dominating thought that we are 3 parts- body, soul and spirit but even if you want to slice us up that way you are still dealing with material or immaterial. Also it eliminates the argument of the tricotomist that the spirit can be ministered to by the pastor and the soul is to be treated in a therapeutic manner. The soul is the heart according to the Bible.
When you are grieved your heart aches, when you are overjoyed your heart soars!
When you think of your heart you are not picturing the organ that pumps blood through your body hurting or soaring, you think of something without form or substance, but yet so real that when it hurts or rejoices it feels like an organ. This is why Cymbalta can market their drug under the tag line “depression hurts” because sometimes feelings and desires in the immaterial man can be so strong that they dominate the physical aspects of a person.
To discover what your heart contains, you have to look at the results, or evidences of things in your life. If my thoughts are focused on:
•What is most important to me
•What I want
•What I desire
•What makes me happy
•What makes me content
•What makes me feel good
•What makes me feel loved
•What makes me feel wanted
•What makes me feel desired
Then I can very safely say that my heart is focused on “self.”
Much of our misery is because we are focused on ourselves instead of focusing on God and others. A self focus is what is many of these psych diagnosis have at their root. These folks have stopped looking to Jesus and living for Him and our bad feelings and alleviating them have become our main focus. Any time we are focusing on something so much that is becomes a distraction we are operating under a new kind of “disorder”
That will be our topic for tomorrow.