This book is intended for Bible study. My hope as you engage in this study is that you will turn again and again
to your favorite version of the Bible—to highlight specific words, underline phrases, write in the margins, or
circle verses that speak to you in a special way. My Bible is well marked with dates, notes, and insights.
Bookstores are filled with self-help books these days, and many books deal with emotional well-being. The Bible
is the ultimate “help” book. The advice that it offers doesn't lead us to self-help, however; rather, it leads
us to God's help. The Bible holds God's eternal wisdom about emotions and how we are to express them. Make your
Bible your ultimate authority on emotions and how to communicate them.
For Personal or Group Study
You may use this guide on your own or as part of a small-group study. If you use this book for an individual
Bible study, you will find many places in which to note key insights or your response to the material presented.
If you are using this book for a small-group study, you'll find ample opportunity for discussion.
At various times, you will be asked to identify with the material in one of these ways:
• What new insight have you gained?
• Have you ever had a similar experience?
• How do you feel about the material?
• In what way do you feel challenged to action?
Insights
An insight is seeing something as if it is new to you. It is more than a mere fact or an idea. Most of us have
had the experience of reading a passage of the Bible countless times and then one day reading it and saying, “I
never noticed that before. I've never seen that truth in all the times I've studied or meditated on these verses.”
When that happens, you are experiencing a spiritual insight.
Insights can be very personal. Generally speaking, something stands out to us because it relates to us in some
way, usually to something we are currently experiencing. At other times, an insight will pull it all together for
us. We may have been reading or studying in a certain area for some time when suddenly, we understand more clearly
God's meaning or purpose. We have a sudden knowing about what to do, how to think, or why we believe what we believe.
Ask God to give you insights every time you open His Word to read it. I believe He will be faithful in answering
your prayer!
As you have insights, make notes about them. If you are intentional about recording your insights, you'll likely
find that you have more insights. The more you listen for God to speak to you, the more He does! If you haven't
gained new spiritual insights after reading several passages from God's Word, you probably haven't been engaged
in the process of study.
From time to time in this guide, you will be asked to note what specific passages of the Bible say to you. This
is the time for you to record your personal response, not a group response.
Experiences
Each of us comes to God's Word from a unique background. Each of us has learned about emotions from a unique
set of sources. Therefore, each of us has a unique perspective on what is read in God's Word.
What we do have in common are life experiences. We can point to times in which we have found the Bible to be
applicable to us—sometimes in a convicting, challenging way, and sometimes in an encouraging, comforting way. We
have experiences about which we can say, “I know that truth in the Bible is valid because of what happened to me.”
Of course, our experiences do not make the Bible true. The Bible is truth. By noting our experiences, we discover
the many ways in which the Bible is applicable to us and to others. We see how God's Word has the potential to
speak to every person and to address at some level every situation or circumstance that a person might experience.
We discover that God's Word is universal, as well as individual, and that our greatest potential for mutuality,
harmony, and unity lies in each of us having a relationship with Christ Jesus and desiring to live according to
God's principles.
Sharing experiences is important for spiritual growth. If you are doing this study on your own, I encourage
you to talk to others about your faith experiences.
Emotional Responses
This entire book is about emotions, and we have already discussed in the introduction the need to allow others
to have their own emotional responses. Very specifically, we need to allow ourselves and others to have emotional
responses to God's Word.
Face your emotions honestly. Learn to share them with others.
God expects you to respond to Him and to His Word in an emotional way. Allow yourself to do so, and take note
of the way you feel.
When you identify your emotions toward God's Word and what you perceive God is saying to you through His Word,
you may be motivated to greater action, or you may have deeper insights into yourself. Both can be means to spiritual
growth.
In most small-group settings, I have found it much more beneficial for people to express their emotions than
to give their opinions.
Sometimes God speaks to us through His Word in nonverbal ways. His Spirit isn't limited to the words on the
page. The Holy Spirit often speaks to us in the unspoken language of intuition, promptings, emotions, and deep
desires and longings.
When we share our feelings with one another, we have deeper insights into God's Word, and we also grow closer
together as the body of Christ. A sense of community develops, and we understand more clearly what it means to
be one in the Spirit. Through the sharing of joys and sorrows, assurances and doubts, we mature not only as individuals,
but also as churches.
Challenges
As we read God's Word, we nearly always feel conviction at some point. We feel as if God is speaking directly
to us.
The conviction may be about sin in our lives. It may be a clear call to engage in a new behavior or even to
pursue a new avenue of ministry or service. It may be a word of correction about a pattern or habit in our lives.
I have found in my life that God always challenges me to grow just beyond where I am and to do things that are
just beyond my ability to do them. God is never content with the status quo. He is always calling us to grow more
like His Son, Jesus Christ.
We need to pinpoint, as best we can, the areas in which we believe God is challenging us—stretching us, molding
us, calling us, causing us to believe for more. When we identify what God wants us to do, we are in a better position
to take action.
Ultimately, God desires to get His Word into us, and us into His Word, so that we can take His Word into the
world, live it out, and be witnesses of His Word in all we say and do. It isn't enough for us to note our insights,
recall our experiences, or share our emotions. We must apply what we learn. The Bible challenges us to be doers
of His Word and not hearers only (James 1:22).
It isn't enough for you to become personally whole emotionally. You must seek to develop relationships with
other people that are marked by emotional maturity and wholeness. You must become an advocate for emotional health
and soundness in families, churches, and communities.
Keep the Bible Central
I caution you to keep the Bible at the center of your study. Otherwise, you face the danger of your group becoming
a therapy or support group of some type. Therapy and support groups have their time and place, but in the end,
it is as we gather around God's Word—to feed upon it, learn from it, and grow into it—that we truly grow spiritually
and become all that God created us to be.
If you are doing a personal Bible study, you also must be diligent in staying focused on God's Word. Self-analysis
and introspection are not the goals of this study. Growing into the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus is
the goal!
Prayer
Finally, I encourage you to begin and end your Bible study sessions in prayer. Ask God to give you spiritual
eyes to see what He wants you to see and spiritual ears to hear what He wants you to hear. Ask Him to give you
new insights, to recall to your memory the experiences that are helpful to your growth, and to help you identify
your emotions with clarity. Be bold and ask Him to reveal to you in His Word what He desires for you to take as
the next step of growth in your spiritual journey.
As you conclude a time of study, ask the Lord to seal to your heart what you have learned so that you will never
forget it. Ask Him to transform you more into the likeness of Christ Jesus as you meditate on what you have studied.
The Depths of God's Word
Avoid the temptation of concluding at the end of your ten-week study that you have mastered your emotions. You
have probably only begun to explore certain areas of your life. Continue to read God's Word. Continue to grow and
to explore what God has to say to you about emotions and all that it means to have a sound mind and heart.
Never stop exploring the riches of God's Word on any topic. I can guarantee you without reservation that if
you remain in God's Word on a daily basis, you'll have a much greater understanding about emotional health and
wholeness a year from now than you will have at the end of ten weeks. Read God's Word daily. Grow in its truth.
• What new insights about emotions do you anticipate God may have for you personally?
• Is there something specific that you hope to gain from this study?
• In what areas have you struggled with certain emotions in the past?
• How do you feel about experiencing emotional growth, about expressing emotions more readily, about discussing
emotions?
• Do you feel challenged to grow emotionally as a means of becoming a more effective witness for Christ Jesus?
From Becoming Emotionally Whole: Overcome Negative Emotions and
Become Happier and Healthier by Charles Stanley. Copyright 1996 by Charles Stanley.
