Emotions are tricky. On one hand, God has given them as a great help to us. They ignite our passion for the Lord and move us to give our lives to Him. They embolden us to share the Gospel that has changed us so completely. They contribute to convictions of the Holy Spirit in killing our sin and sanctifying ourselves to be more like Christ. When they are controlled and wielded righteously, they are a great help to navigating our Christian walk.

On the other hand, emotions are misleading and they are not irrefutable. They are still a part of the flesh-response in our fallen nature. They can lead us to sin, offend God, hurt others, and provide excuses for us to remain comfortable in our temptations and trespasses.

A pitfall of the American church is that it relies on carnal means to try and entice lost and worldly people into saving grace. The issue is, when we know real grace ourselves, we understand that there is nothing a person can say or do that can convince someone to sacrifice their worldly comforts to live a God-honoring life. Instead, we have to rely on God’s revealing Himself to someone in order to draw the lost to Him. And because we minimize that fact into a minor detail of church culture, Christians tend to strive in certain things in order to try and get imperfect people to see Jesus using imperfect means and methods.