Last week I directed you to the latest 9Marks eJournal. Well, I just finished reading through the journal this past weekend. There was one article I wanted to specifically point out to you. It was titled, More Than a Feeling: The Emotions and Christian Devotion by D.G. Hart.

Christians, especially ‘us’ Baptists, struggle with our emotions. We often feel an awkwardness associated with publicly displaying our emotions. We struggle with fitting our emotions together with our doctrine. Hart writes of this tension:

What then is the proper balance between the objective and the subjective? How are Christians to rightly regard the emotions? In brief, we should understand that the subjective depends on the objective. Right emotions depend on, and derive from, sound doctrine.

Later on he also writes:

Another important factor in balancing the objective and subjective aspects of Christian faith is to recognize that Christian experience arises from truth. Emotions proceeds from doctrine, not the other way around.

I highly recommend you read the entire article to better understand this tension between our emotions and our doctrine. It was an encouragement to my soul and I trust it will be to yours as well.