God Wants an Emotional Relationship with You

Current Teaching Series When You're Hoping for a Miracle

God Wants an Emotional Relationship with You By Rick Warren — Feb 9, 2018 “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 these words from 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. 1. 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. 2 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, to be faithful and loyal and kind and generous, and to express 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. 3. 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, this view says, and they control your life. On the other hand, stoicism says feelings aren’t important at all, and the only things that matter are your intellect and your will. God gave you your emotions for a reason, and he wants you to worship him with all your heart and all your mind. PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >> Talk It Over Why 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?

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Series Summary Session 1: When You're Running Out of Everything Session 2: When You Can't See Your Way Clearly Session 3: When You've Come Up Empty Session 4: When You Feel You're Sinking Session 5: When a Marriage Has Ended Session 6: When You're Drowing in Debt Session 7: When a Friend is Dying PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST

Pastor Rick Warren

Enjoy today's Devotional? Listen instantly to the full radio message at Daily Hope Radio. Did someone forward this devotional to you? Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional. This devotional is based on the current Daily Hope radio series at pastorrick.com. 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, which has been translated into 137 languages and sold more than 50 million copies in all formats. 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 around the world. This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You can unsubscribe at any time by changing your e-mail preferences. Update your preferences  |  Unsubscribe