Day 193: Emotional vs. Mental

1 Corinthians 14:1-25; 2 Kings 8; Jonah 3 

The whole point of spiritual gifts is not to make ourselves more awesome. That's what the world does. Paul reminds us here that spiritual gifts are meant to serve and help and edify the church. Whatever it is that we are capable of, whether we are great at it or not, whether we are comfortable with it or not, we need to do things that build up fellow believers. And all of it comes back to living a life of love: "Love should be your guide" (verse 1).

Paul goes on to say that sometimes we should pray and sing with our spirits and other times with our mind. I think the difference is that sometimes, it will be a soulful, emotional, passionate experience where our hearts are full and we weep or cry out or can't control our response. Other times, we need to think about our prayers and songs, listen to the words, process what we are communicating with God and it can be very powerful, but not emotional. Both are good and there is a time for both. I think people get into trouble when they think worship has to be a soulful, emotional experience all the time. That's not how life works. We aren't going to feel crazy, passionate, in love with God every moment of every day. Sometimes, we will have to mentally power through the tough days when God seems distant. Having the ability for both passionate worship, and mental resolve is exactly what we need to thrive spiritually in this world.

Paul also makes the point that we need to be aware of how "outsiders" or "strangers" to the church would feel when we are worshipping. We need to make sure that what we are doing in our services is friendly to new people. That doesn't mean watering stuff down or not being passionate in worship or prayer, it simply means that the point of church is not just to make ourselves feel better but to bring more of God to this world and be open and welcoming to newcomers.

The woman in 2 Kings 8 is the same one whose son had died and Elisha (ultimately God) had brought back to life. Because she had been through terrible times, when Elisha told her she needed to move because there would be famine in her town, she left without question. Those hard times, the worst times, helped her to have a faith to follow God in whatever he said. She would not question him and because of that, her family was able to survive.

Elisha cries because God told him of the terrible things Hazael was going to do. Hazael didn't think he was capable of such things, but I'm sure we will read later of just how destructive of a leader he was. Elisha wept over these things, things like murder, destruction of cities, killing babies, and tearing open pregnant women. Christians, these things are still going on in our world and in our country. Am I weeping for them? Often, I don't even think about this stuff, let alone pray for it or take a stand to stop it. I pray that God would make us sensitive to the hurts and needs of other humans.

Jonah didn't want to go to Ninevah, probably for a lot of reasons. One, it may have made him uncomfortable, it was out of his comfort zone. Maybe he didn't like the Ninevites and didn't want to preach about God to them. But after his near death experience in the sea, Jonah was ready to obey God. I bet he thought to himself later in life, why didn't I just obey God the first time? Why did I force him to take me through a really tumultuous time? God was probably asking the same question about us: Why won't they just obey me the first time instead of running and forcing my hand? God wants to save people and when we run from our calling, we are not allowing God to work through us. The people of Ninevah were sincerely sorry and changed their sinful ways because of Jonah's obedience and preaching.