Emotional Freedom

Sometimes Christians tend to think that emotions are not good.  While there is something to be said about 'emotionalism' and letting our emotions rule our experience, emotions are given as a barometer of what is going on with us.  When you look at the story of Jesus, He displayed a whole range of emotions--"Jesus wept", He threw out the money changers and He smiled upon the children who snuggled in His lap. 

Sometimes it is easier to bury our emotions than to deal with them.  I suppose that is because dealing with them can cause us to have to re-live them.  Last week, we talked about the 'emotional clearing house' of the brain which checks all incoming stimuli against our experience.  We all react differently to past pain.  Some people build emotional walls, others block out their past so that they can't recall any details, and still others wear their pain out there like little buttons just waiting for someone to push them.  None of these ways cause the person to feel free.

Several years ago, when I was able to go to counseling and come to emotional freedom, I said, "Wow! Everybody wants this!" But as time went by, I discovered that I was wrong, not everyone does want freedom---because emotional freedom comes with a price.....or should I say several prices.

1. First, in order to be free of the pain, you have to allow yourself to feel it again. This is because the emotional part of the brain must link with the thinking part in order for freedom to be experienced. Some people don't want to pass through this---they have spent too much of their lives blocking themselves from feeling it to want to go through it or feel it again. So they go on in pain every day doing their best to hide it from others.
2. The second price for freedom is that it doesn't come without humility.  Pride is such an emotional binder. It keeps people stuck and unable to experience emotional freedom.  The interesting thing about pride is that it has two faces.  One face is pompous and exalts itself above others and the other face is self debasing and is always putting self down low.  Both of these stem from the same root of pride.  Pride must be renounced in order to experience freedom. 

 If the desire for freedom is bigger than those two barriers, then it is possible to be free.  The problem for most people is that they don't know they way.  I know I didn't.   Desire was not enough to bring me freedom.  Then I heard about some people who were dedicating themselves to seeing other people come to freedom.  I had been to counselors before, and although I might feel somewhat free for a while, it would always come back on me.  But this gave me hope.

When I went there and shared my story, I had never had anyone care about it the way that these people did.  And it was not just 'put on'---they genuinely cared about my story.  When I was able to share it all, they then took me to Jesus for each point of pain.  One by one the burdens fell off as Jesus took them.  I walked away such a different person that for one week afterwords other people were asking me, "What happened to you?"  I had not only come face to face with the things that had emotionally bound me, but I had also met Jesus as the only One who can bring emotional freedom.

If you are struggling and really have a heart desire for freedom, please contact me.  I would love to walk with you on the path to emotional freedom.

~Cindy Lou~

Inspired by Heart to Heart with Holley