Last Sunday we
began a series of study on Habits for Healthy Living. I shared that healthy
living starts with healthy eating and healthy eating does not start in the
plate but it starts in the mind. After sharing about Healthy Eating, I came
across Dr. Daniel Amen’s book, “The Amen Solution: The Brain Healthy Way to
Lose Weight and Keep it Off. In his book he talks about five brain types: Type
1. Compulsive Overeater. People of this brain type tend to get stuck on the
thought of food and feel compulsively driven to eat. Type 2. Impulsive Overeater. People of this
brain type have poor impulse control, get easily distracted and reach for food
without thinking. Type 3: Impulsive-Compulsive Overeater. While this may seem
contradictory, it is possible to be both at the same time. Compulsive eaters,
for example, are compelled to eat and have little control over their impulses.
Type 4: Sad or
Emotional Overeater. People with this brain pattern overeat to medicate
feelings of sadness and to calm the emotional storms in their brains. They
often struggle with depression, low energy, low self-esteem and pain symptoms,
and tend to gain weight in winter. Type 5: Anxious Overeater. People with this
brain pattern medicate feelings of anxiety or nervousness with food, complain
of waiting for something bad to happen and frequently suffer from headaches and
stomach problems.[1]
I am interested to learn more about brain types 3 and 4 as these two are linked
with emotional health.
Today we will look
at the importance of emotional health for healthy living. What are the emotions,
and how many are there? What does the Bible say about emotions? What is
emotional health? What contributes to Emotional Health?
I UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS
What is an emotion? “A natural instinctive state of
mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.”
According to this definition emotions are natural. They depend on
circumstances, one’s mood and relationships with others. Another word for
emotion is feeling. Robert Plutchik created a wheel of emotions in 1980. He
came up with eight basic emotions. Fear:
feeling afraid. Other words are terror (strong fear), shock, and phobia. Anger: Feeling angry. Sadness: Feeling sad. Other words are
sorrow, grief, or depression. Some
people tend place depression as a separate emotion.
Joy: Feeling
happy. Other words are happiness, gladness. Disgust: Feeling something is wrong or dirty. Trust: A sense of trusting and being trusted. Anticipation: A sense of
looking forward positively to something which is going to happen. Surprise:
How one feels when something unexpected happens.[2]
There could be other emotions attached to these basic ones.
II. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT EMOTIONS?
The scriptures tell us that God made us as whole
persons in his image. Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” This scripture
tells us that both men and women were created in the image of God. Let that
sink in for a moment; we are created in the image of God.
What does that image include? It concludes physical,
spiritual, emotional, social, and intellectual, components or spheres of life. Healthy
living takes all these five aspects into consideration. When we learn to
engage, interact and grow wisely in those five spheres of life we become better
people and the world becomes a much better place to live.
Many Christians focus growing only
in the spiritual sphere and neglect the other four. When that happens their
lives become out of balance and out of control. Pete Scazzero in Emotionally
Healthy Spirituality notes, “Ignoring any aspect of who we are as men and women
made in God’s image always results in destructive consequences in our
relationship with God, with ourselves and with others.”[3]
Therefore it is important that we
look into all these five spheres when it comes to healthy living. Last week by
talking about Healthy Eating I barely touched on the “physical sphere” of our
lives and there is much more to talk about the physical sphere. Today we are
looking into the second sphere which is the “Emotional Sphere”
We have emotions because God has
emotions. Scriptures tell us that we are to use all our emotions when it comes
to worshiping, and serving God and serving others. For example the call of God
to the Israelites and later on emphasized by Christ to his followers. Matt 22:37-39 “Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (emotions). This is
the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’
The scripture tells us to use our
emotions in loving God, loving ourselves and loving others. Our emotions and feelings
are God given and there is nothing wrong with them. They are very fragile and can
easily get hurt and wounded if we are not careful. Even when we are careful at
times they get hurt by the insensitivity of others. Unfortunately there are so
many people walking around in the world with crushed and wounded emotions. They
are looking for healing.
In the last twenty years are so there
has been a lot of awareness and study done in the area of mental health and
emotional health. Here is what I found out. Mental health is your ability to
properly think and process information while emotional health is your ability
to appropriately express feelings. While these two are very different, you
can’t have one without the other. The choices you make on a daily basis involve
both mental and emotional processing.[4]
With all the advanced scientific discoveries and
technology in the USA we are dealing with more people who are mentally ill. One
study tells us, “One out of five, which means about 42.5 million American
adults (or 18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States)
suffers from some mental illness, enduring conditions such as depression,
bipolar disorder or schizophrenia every year.”[5]
Think about how much money and the resources the US
government is spending on research, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and
rehabilitation of these mentally affected people? It pains me to see so many
people who are struggling in this area. Many are wrongly diagnosed and labeled
and others are heavily medicated and can’t seem to hold their lives together.
Is it
possible even in our church there may be several people struggling in this area
of emotional health? Mental health and emotional health are real concerns in
this country. Who can solve this epidemic level problem? Who can improve the overall
emotional health of individuals, families, churches, the society and our
nation? Only one person can and will, his name is Jesus.
III. JESUS IS THE HOPE OF OUR NATION.
Satan and sin have always caused such devastation
in the world since Adams Fall. The Prophet
Isaiah explains the nature of Satan and his final miserable end. Isaiah 14:
15-17, “Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate:
“Is this the man who shook the earth and
made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a
wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?”
Literally Satan has imprisoned
millions by attacking their emotions and their mental health and he is
continuing to do so. Do you know why Christ came to this world? For two
reasons; one is to destroy the works of the devil whereby to destroy Him
eternally and permanently. Secondly to set the captives free. To free those who
are shackled by emotional bondages and addictions and physical sickness.
Jesus is the hope of our nation.
He can better understand you than any psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist,
and any other spiritual leader, why because, he has made you in the first place
and knows exactly what you are going through. Jesus understands your emotional
needs. The scriptures tell us that Jesus was anything
but an emotionally frozen Messiah: He shed tears (Luke 19:41). He was filled
with joy (Luke 10:21). He grieved (Mark 14:34). He wept at the grave side of
Lazarus (John 11:33) He was angry (Mark 3:5).
Sadness came over him (Matt 26:37).
He felt sorrow (Luke 7:13) He showed astonishment and wonder (Mark 6:6; Luke
7:9) He had an emotional longing to be with the twelve apostles. (Luke 22:15). All
these scriptures portrays Jesus as one who had intense, raw, emotional
experiences and was able to express his emotions in unashamed, unembarrassed
freedom to others. He did not repress or project his feelings onto others.
Instead we read of Jesus responsibly experiencing the full range of emotion throughout
his earthly ministry. In today’s language, he would be considered “emotionally
intelligent” a term popularized by Daniel Goleman.”[6]
What is your emotional state today?
Are you emotionally tired and weary? Even after being medicated, and seeing
several therapists you feel like your situation is hopeless? Is anger taking
control of your life? Are you afraid and feel sad? Are you depressed? Do you
feel like giving up? Do you feel rejected by people? Do not lose hope. Jesus
knows everything you are going through. He had been there where you are now. He
is lovingly reaching out to you today.
In closing here is a hope giving
scripture. Isaiah 53:3-5, “He was despised and rejected
by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we
held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering, yet we
considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
The wounded healer is here today and inviting you to bring your wounded
emotions, crushed spirit and receive healing and wholeness. By His wounds you
are healed. Amen
[1] http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/itrsquos-all-in-the-brain-unlocking-the-secrets-of-overeating-with-neuroscience
[2] http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emotions
[3]
Peter Scazzero, “ Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.” page 18
[4] http://www.myhealthylivingcoach.com/difference-emotional-mental-health/
[5] http://www.newsweek.com/nearly-1-5-americans-suffer-mental-illness-each-year-230608
[6]
Pete Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Church page; 75
