02/25/2026
Faith and Emotions: They are Not the Same!
“Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord! For He has delivered the soul of the needy one from the hand of evildoers.”
“Cursed be the day when I was born; Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!”
Jeremiah 20:13-14
Jeremiah was a man of strong faith. He heard directly from God and stood in intercession for the southern kingdom of Israel before and during the deportation to Babylon. His message was harsh and uncompromising. He could not not speak, for the words would burn within him if he chose to disobey God’s commands. He declares the glory of God in one breath and slips into deep, gut-wrenching depression in the next breath, declaring that it would have been better if he had never been born.
Does Jeremiah’s emotional response negate his faithful praise? I have struggled with this. After all, a Christian is to be filled with joy and thanksgiving even in the time of trouble. Right?
Dec. 5, 2025, changed our lives forever. It will always be the before and after moment for us. My husband danced and played with the grandchildren at a Mexican restaurant after we all attended the visitation for his father who would be buried the next morning. Filled up with love and support, we retired to our hotel room and prepared for bed. After lying down, Tracy began to complain of his neck and jaw hurting. Quick trip to the ER, a long trip by ambulance to Kansas Heart Hospital in Wichita, a catheterization surgery the next morning that turned into an emergency quintuple bypass open heart surgery that afternoon.
We were hit sideways. He had never had any symptoms of a pending heart attack–no high blood pressure, no irregular EKG’s, no shortness of breath or loss of energy. Just his jaw and teeth hurting and SLAM!
Was God surprised? No. Was God punishing us? No. Is God still on His throne? Yes! Does God still love and care for us? Yes, and Yes! His mercy endures forever. He has shown Himself great in so many ways through this whole ordeal. Our faith has not wavered. We stand on the solid rock.
But we are human. Our emotions have collided with reality as we sold our house, put everything in storage, went on short-term then long-term disability, moved in with our oldest son in another state, are grieving over what was and what we thought would be, and are dealing with the day to day emotions of cardio-therapy, nutrition changes, counseling appointments, and his depression and anxiety as he deals with dizziness, balance, continued chest pain, identity issues, and loss of job and career expectations. It’s been a lot. And we still haven’t processed his dad’s death, although we have processed a lot of forms as Tracy is his father’s POA financially. We also continue to act as POA for health and finances for his mom who is in a care facility with dementia. All while trying to decide, “What’s next?” Life sucks sometimes!
It’s okay to feel the emotions of the moment. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), then He got up and raised Lazarus from the dead. The key is to be real with your emotions, talk them out, scream them out (but not at each other!), cry them out. Take proactive steps to move beyond the circumstances (Tracy is doing cardio-therapy, nutrition counseling, and counseling), then come to a point that you can put the emotions behind you and heal from the situation. This can take weeks, months, even years. But…are you moving towards forgiveness, overcoming, and peace? Are you trusting God to work out your circumstances and to lead you into the paths of His choosing?
Here are some verses we are hanging our hats on right now:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Ps. 3:4-5
Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Don’t worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself; today has enough trouble of its own. Matt. 6:34
But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31
When emotions come, and they will, know that strong emotional responses do not reflect the strength of your faith.
