God Wants an Emotional Relationship with You

	Jan 15, 2015 God Wants an Emotional Relationship with You by Rick Warren “The most important commandment is this …. ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” (Mark 12:29-30 NLT) The Bible says in Mark 12:29-30, “The most important commandment is this …. ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (NLT). Do you hear the emotion in the words of Jesus? He’s saying he doesn’t want you to just kind of love him. He wants you to love him passionately — with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. God doesn’t want your head knowledge; he wants an emotional relationship with you. There are some things you need to understand about emotions. First, God has emotions. God is an emotional God. He feels joy, grief, pain, and hatred toward sin. He gets frustrated with people. The only reason you have emotions is because you’re made in God’s image. If God wasn’t an emotional God, you wouldn’t have any emotions. Your ability to feel is a gift from God. Emotions are what make you human. It is your emotional ability that allows you to love and create and be faithful and loyal and kind and generous and all of the emotions that are attached to the good things in life. Your emotions may not always seem like a gift, but even the negative ones have a purpose in your life. There are two extremes to avoid. Emotionalism is the extreme of saying the only thing that matters in life is how you feel — not what you think or what’s right or wrong. Everything in life is based on your emotions; they control your life. On the other hand, stoicism says feelings aren’t important at all, and the only thing that matters is your intellect and your will. There are entire Christian denominations built on these two approaches to emotions. Some Christians have decided that it doesn’t really matter how you feel. They downplay emotions. That’s not right. God gave you your emotions for a reason, and he wants you to worship him emotionally — with all your heart and all your mind. PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >> Talk It Over How do you think we sometimes worship God more with our head than our heart? Are you more of a “gusher” or a “stuffer” with your emotions? What emotions do you think God wants you to bring to your relationship with him? Our Gift: TRANSFORMED Study Kit A 7-session DVD and workbook that will explore what the Bible has to say about EVERY area of your life: Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Emotional, Relational, Financial, and Vocational. MORE TRANSFORMED: Audio Series (purchase) Includes all complete sermons from Rick Warren ​Transformed ​teaching series.  MORE This devotional is based on the current Daily Hope radio series at www.rickwarren.org. Rick Warren has helped people live with hope and on purpose for more than 40 years. He’s the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California and author of several books, including “The Purpose Driven Church” and “The Purpose Driven Life,” read by more than 100 million people in 137 languages. He created the PEACE Plan (plant churches of reconciliation, equip servant leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, educate the next generation), which is used by churches in 196 countries. His radio teaching and daily devotional, Daily Hope, is offered across America. Follow Us: Follow Pastor Rick on Facebook and Twitter. Enjoy today’s devotional? Listen instantly to the full radio message at Daily Hope Radio. Did someone forward this Daily Devotional to you? Get your own free subscription to The Purpose Driven Connection Daily Devotional, your daily inspiration via email. This devotional © 2015 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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