God Wants an Emotional Relationship with You

Jan 15, 2015 God Wants an Emotional Relationship with You by Rick Warren “The most important commandment is this …. ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” (Mark 12:29-30 NLT) The Bible says in Mark 12:29-30, “The most important commandment is this …. ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (NLT). Do you hear the emotion in the words of Jesus? He’s saying he doesn’t want you to just kind of love him. He wants you to love him passionately — with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. God doesn’t want your head knowledge; he wants an emotional relationship with you. There are some things you need to understand about emotions. First, God has emotions. God is an emotional God. He feels joy, grief, pain, and hatred toward sin. He gets frustrated with people. The only reason you have emotions is because you’re made in God’s image. If God wasn’t an emotional God, you wouldn’t have any emotions. Your ability to feel is a gift from God. Emotions are what make you human. It is your emotional ability that allows you to love and create and be faithful and loyal and kind and generous and all of the emotions that are attached to the good things in life. Your emotions may not always seem like a gift, but even the negative ones have a purpose in your life. There are two extremes to avoid. Emotionalism is the extreme of saying the only thing that matters in life is how you feel — not what you think or what’s right or wrong. Everything in life is based on your emotions; they control your life. On the other hand, stoicism says feelings aren’t important at all, and the only thing that matters is your intellect and your will. There are entire Christian denominations built on these two approaches to emotions. Some Christians have decided that it doesn’t really matter how you feel. They downplay emotions. That’s not right. God gave you your emotions for a reason, and he wants you to worship him emotionally — with all your heart and all your mind. PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >> Talk It Over How do you think we sometimes worship God more with our head than our heart? Are you more of a “gusher” or a “stuffer” with your emotions? What emotions do you think God wants you to bring to your relationship with him?

You Were Born to Win TODAY’S SCRIPTURE “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31, NASB) TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria The Bible says that we are more than conquerors through Christ. Rise up and see yourself as a champion in Him! You can be and you will be victorious through Him. The problems that so often intimidate and defeat many people won’t have a firm hold on you when you’re walking with Christ and have the joy of the Lord! When you walk with Christ, strength and victory is yours through Him. Here’s something to remember today: if Christ is on your side, it doesn’t really matter who is against you! The opponents you face don’t really matter, and don’t amount to much. Friend, take another look at your life today, YOU are a friend of God! No matter what you may face or who may seem against you let this truth anchor deep within you — God is for you. Now go out in joy making a difference for Him today, knowing who is on your side! A PRAYER FOR TODAY God, I know that You are on my side and that the other side doesn’t matter. Please give me the strength to stand against the giants that intimidate me. Thank you for your joy and strength and for always being by my side! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

​PS... ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI0cgUKMqRs