INTRODUCTION

In one of his sermons Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10)

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

It is clear that Jesus is saying he can offer us a more abundant way of living than what we have been experiencing. Unfortunately many Christians fail to experience these attributes in their daily lives.

People suffer daily and are overcome by such negative emotions as rejection, guilt, anger, grief, low self esteem and depression. Due to the nature of our society it is very difficult for anyone to grow to adulthood without suffering some damage to their emotions. Many get stuck emotionally at some childhood level and never get beyond that stage. This results in emotional problems later on in mid-life.

Most because of their raising have a stable emotional state of mind. I often hear Christians say “I just can’t understand depression. I have never had anything like that!”

Well meaning people can’t understand why a person in depression can’t “just snap out of it.”

They imply that their faith must be weak. Unless one has struggled with depression they can never possibly understand it. If you have never had depression just be thankful you have not had to struggle through it.

It is a fact that emotional pain can be far worse than physical pain. By nature and temperament, some Christians are nervous, apprehensive, and easily frightened. Some seem to be born with an oversensitive conscience and their feelings are easily touched and changed. Paul may have been one of these.

We tend to think of Paul as a very strong person emotionally. Yet he says that he went to Corinth in “weakness and fear, with much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3)

He seems to have been a high-strung man, for he says, “without were fightings, within were fears” (2 Corinthians 7:5)

In growing up we have all experienced different kinds of hurts. Some have reached out for love, approval and affection as children but instead they got rejection, shame, and guilt. It is also an established medical fact that there can be a chemical imbalance in the brain which produces depression.

People who are extremely introspective and sensitive with a chemical imbalance can have the worst problems with depression. If you visit the far west you will see those beautiful giant sequoia and redwood trees. A cross section reveals the history of each tree year by year. Drought, too much rain, lightning, forest fire that almost destroyed the tree. A savage blight and disease.

Just beneath the protective layer of our outer human bark, are the recorded rings of our lives. In the rings of our emotions there is recorded the memories of many painful past experiences. These affect our concepts, our feelings, our relationships. They affect the way we look at ourselves, at life and even God. Hurts, scars and wrong programming can interfere with our present behaviour.

With many Christians there are certain areas of our lives that need special healing. Is there any hope for folks who are in need of having their emotions healed? To begin with it is a great source of comfort to know that the Lord is aware of those who suffer emotionally. In Hebrews 4:15 we read, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

There is a rugged honesty about the life of Jesus—every kind of emotion was so clearly recorded and freely expressed, without any sense of shame or guilt or imperfection.

You cannot name one single emotion but what Jesus experienced the same identical emotion. Thus we have a great High Priest who understands the feeling of our infirmities. He does not just understand the fact of our infirmities, He understands the feeling of our infirmities.

He understands the pain that comes from them – the frustrations, anxieties, hurts, feelings of abandonment, loneliness, isolation, rejection, even the depression.

He can do this because he has experienced all of these emotions

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