Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • ANBI
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
  • ES
    • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (Weekly Thoughts) John Fenn >
      • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (PDF)
  • FR
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
  • L
    • LV
    • LT >
      • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
        • E-Book
      • Straipsniai >
        • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
        • Krikštai
        • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
        • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
        • Garbinimas
        • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
        • Išgelbėjimas
        • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
        • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
        • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
      • Video LT
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie >
      • Conferentie LT - 2025
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
  • PL
  • PT
    • "O pensamento da semana em Português"
    • PT-pdf
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Donate
  • Events
  • TV
  • Contact
  • New Page

Emotional reasoning, or rational thinking #1. "I feel it, therefore I am"

10/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Hi all,
Let me define 'emotional reasoning' right at the start: 
 
Emotional reasoning is a process in which a person believes their emotional reaction is true, regardless of the evidence before them. It is the process by which we form a thought, opinion, idea, or belief based on how we feel. 
 
This means logic, evidence, and facts do not influence an emotional reasoner because they believe what they feel and therefore think, is true. No amount of facts and evidence can change their mind. Even if they observe evidence to the contrary of their feelings, they won't accept it because they deliberately reject logic in favor of their feelings. 
 
They feel it, therefore it is true. Period. Paragraph. Over and out. 
An emotional reasoner lays aside logic and the thought process that includes analysis, reflection, contemplation, and reasoning, in favor of elevating how they feel about a person or situation above all. Emotional reasoning leads a person down a path of dysfunction and even self-destruction at times. 
 
Let me be blunt: You will never grow spiritually beyond your level of emotional health. 
 
Scripture repeatedly tells us to take our thoughts captive, to think on good things, to believe the best, and more, yet Christian culture is filled with emotional reasoners. 
 
They are spiritual babies even after years of knowing the Lord; bound by emotional stagnation due to events in life. 
 
Their issues aren't founded in the emotional, but in their thought life. Many choose to stay in an emotional rut because they've been hurt too many times, or they just don't have it in them to fight the battle of thoughts over emotions. Some have never learned how to think, how to make their emotions submit to Christ and His ways and His thoughts - they have never learned the higher ways.
 
Thoughts must control emotions rather than emotions controlling thoughts. Paul didn't say to bring reasoning captive, but imaginations captive. That's emotions. 
 
The disclaimer is that there are times to obey emotions, and in the best case scenario reasoning and emotions work hand in hand. After all, at a hospital emergency room you want doctors and nurses who both emotionally react to the immediacy of the emergency while also having the ability to reason through what needs to be done to save the patient. 
 
Some examples
Examples include the inability or unwillingness to make decisions. 
 
A person may be facing dire financial difficulty, but they can't bring themselves to get out and get a job because if truth be told, they enjoy Facebook and other social media more. What our grandparents called lazy, we label spiritual or otherwise cover up logic with the fact we just don't feel like getting a job. 
 
"I feel depressed, so (therefore) my marriage is failing." This is a person who feels safe in depression, choosing the safety of depression over their marriage rather than getting out to get counseling and working through difficulties. Their feelings leave them wondering if they want to pay the price to save their marriage. Emotions prevent them from doing the difficult thing that would help preserve and transform their marriage. They would rather stay in the safety of what they feel because it is known, and carries no risk of failure. This person is actually living in failure, but can't see it. 
 
If you've ever been unfriended on Facebook by someone angry with you, it may be they are an emotional reasoner. You may have hit their 'hot' button, and the next thing you know, you're unfriended. The same thing happens in real life too - you and a friend may have an argument, one that you are trying to reason through, but your points are met with emotions that aren't anywhere close to logical, and your friendship ends right there.
 
A person excited about a personal prophecy from a so called 'prophet' telling them to go to China, packed up and was gone within 2 weeks because God said so. They had laid aside reasoning - logic, planning, support - and landed in Hong Kong. A month later the church was scrambling to buy them airfare home. They had used emotional reasoning but labeled it faith. It was not faith, but presumption and foolishness. 
 
In real life or in social media, you can measure emotional reasoning by observing if the person's reaction is far greater than the situation calls for. Is their reaction disproportionate to the situation at hand? In other words, do they go nuclear on you when the situation is actually very minor? Do they leave logic when you get 'too close' perhaps, and just explode on you or dissolve into tears or accusations? They are emotional reasoners. 
 
Another sign of emotional reasoning is the avoidance of an answer to a question. Rather than get caught in their flawed logic, this emotional reasoning person talks of how they feel, how others were wronged and so on - a distraction of emotion to prevent the answering of a question they are uncomfortable answering. 
 
Sometimes a person can't honestly process their thoughts and feelings on a a subject fast enough during a discussion, so yelling in an emotional outburst brings the discussion to an end, which accomplishes nothing. 
 
"I don't feel saved, therefore I'm not (and God is mad at me)." This is a person who can read chapter and verse that they are saved, but they believe their emotions rather than God's Word. 
 
How did Jesus clear the temple, upsetting tables and making a whip of cords, yet was without sin? How did Paul and Barnabas have a disagreement so intense they parted ways, only to remain friends and became coworkers again at a later date? How did Peter work through his emotional outburst of denying Christ to become the great apostle? 
 
These things and more in this series...more next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2025
to donate
Photo from widakso