Humans are born with desire. The reason we all carry strong feelings of wanting or wishing is because of another word – need. We all know the feeling of desire and longing because we all have real needs. As infants, we wake up in a world filled with need – we cry out for nourishment, safety, security, affection, the list goes on.

If desire is a seed, emotion is its fruit.

Looking at the fruit of our emotions, we can trace every emotion down to its seed of desire – whether satisfied or unsatisfied. The trouble is that both desire and emotion can deceive us. Just like in the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were deceived by their misguided desire, we, too, are deceived by seeds of misguided desires and end up wallowing in shadowed and undesired emotional fruit.

This week, we’re diving into the Genesis 3 narrative to see how needs, desires, and emotions show off their ‘shadow’ side when sin enters the story. Now, we live in a world where we have God-given needs, yet even desire deceives.

Therefore, as followers of Jesus learning to walk in his way, we must find safe spaces to process our emotion and be able to re-ground ourselves in truth.

  1. Get Honest … Where is your safe space to process your emotions? Are you able to process emotions or do you tend to explode or suppress? What helps you come back to truth?
  2. Change Mind … Listen for what Jesus wants to say to you about how to process your emotion.
  3. Walk Anew … What step might help you move toward processing your emotions instead of exploding or suppressing?

If you’re looking to take the next step toward finding a safe space to process your emotions or life challenges, use this link and fill out the form online to meet with someone from our pastoral care team.