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Don’t trust your Feelings and Emotions

I found this picture on the Internet. It carries much meaning.

It is taken from Chip Conley, Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success.

Check your Premises

The Bible warns us of trusting our emotions and feelings.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  Jer 17:9

First, whenever you feel one of the emotions above, then check your premises.

Example 1: Thriving = (Frequency of Positive) / (Frequency of Negative)

If you think that you are not thriving then increase the frequency of the positive. You have almost no influence on the frequency of the negative, except for avoiding really stupid things. You can increase the frequency of the positive by starting each day by making your bed. That will give you a first feeling of achievement. Then prepare a glass of cold lemon water, and drink it slowly so that you feel the cold water running down your throat. That will be the second feeling of achievement. Don’t stop, carry on by adding further achievements.

Example 2: Anxiety = Uncertainty x Powerlessness

If you are suffering from anxiety, then realize that you cannot influence uncertainty. Instead, start to work on your power. Enroll in physical strength training. And become aware that God is your father, and whatever you ask in Jesus Christ’s name will be given to you. One of the many Bible verses that say that is here:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Jn 15:16

Faith vs. Intellect

What jumped at me was the line “Faith = Belief / Intellect”.

Intellect vs. Intelligence

First, “intellect” is not “intelligence”.

“Intellect” is a personality aspect. It is a measure of interest in abstract ideas, essentially, while Intelligence is a measure of processing speed, verbal ability, working memory, and problem-solving capacity.

Intelligence is measured with a formal IQ test.

Intellect is one aspect of openness to experience, and it is measured in the “Big Five” personality test.

It is perfectly possible to have a high IQ and a low score on the personality trait of Intellect (or the reverse).

Intellect and Belief

Here is the good news: a big Christian intellect usually comes with a huge belief.

Or the other way round, worded as a sad truth: big intellects seldom have faith.

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3)

And yes, “poor in the spirit” can have several meanings, and it does not only mean a low intellect.

Children and God’s Kingdom

If you still don’t believe me, this truth becomes even more accurate when you double-check with those verses that say that children have an advantage when it comes to getting into heaven, assuming that children in average have a much lesser developed intellect than adults:

“At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.”
Lk 10:21

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Lk 18:16-17

And he (Jesus) said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Mt 18:3b

Call to Action

And that is my Call to Action for you: become like a little child when it is about God.

 

Martin “Be a Boy” Schweiger

About 888ms

Deutsch in Asien

Discussion

Comments are closed.

Broken Links

  1. http://www.calvinismus.de/
  2. http://www.lokfuehrer-selbsthilfe.de/18.htm
  3. https://jesus.org.uk/christian-classics

Bitte beachten!

Was wir Menschen tun ist zwangsläufig mit Fehlern behaftet.
Die Bibel rät deshalb: "Prüft alles und das Gute behaltet!" (1. Thess 5, 21)

Entsprechend haben sich die Männer von Beröa verhalten, über die Folgendes berichtet wird:
"Diese aber waren freundlicher als die in Thessalonich; sie nahmen das Wort bereitwillig auf und forschten täglich in der Schrift, ob sich's so verhielte." (Apg 17, 11)

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