7 Biblical Truths to Anchor Your Emotions
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God gave us intellect and emotion as gifts. Made in his image, we have access to thought and feeling. Most people, however, err on one side or the other, depending on their personality. We all operate in both, but relying solely upon our intellect or emotion leads to godlessness and deception.
The proper place for our thoughts and feelings is to be submitted to God and his revelation. Neither intellect nor emotion was meant to bear the choices for life but to serve truth.
Moments and temporary situations easily sway our emotions – negative and positive – and in our own strength, we try to bring relief in various ways to change or feed our emotions. However, we quickly learn how making choices based on emotions leads to anxiety and a lack of security, not an increase of stability. For that, we need God’s truth.
God never dismisses our emotions. He understands and affirms our happiness and grief. He also loves us enough to guide us to base decisions on his truth and not on how we feel in the moment. Emotions change. God’s Word will not. The Father mercifully provides revelation for a sure foundation.
Here are seven biblical truths to anchor your emotions.
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1. God Is Always with Us
Simply encountering God’s presence provides security. He is peace and love and righteousness. To begin with, we must realize the Father, in all his glory and care, remains near to us in every circumstance. When we feel abandoned and alone, he always remains. Hebrews 13:5 encourages us, “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” God himself promises to be with us. His very gift through Jesus is to be near us, the Immanuel.
We can’t earn his presence or lose it. It’s a gift grounded in his character and faithfulness. He grieves and rejoices in us. The truth of his presence challenges the lie that we’re alone or abandoned. If we turn our hearts to him, he reminds us first of his intimacy. He’s not a distant or uncaring God. He walks through every situation with us. As the Comforter, the Spirit speaks to sadness. In excitement, his presence reminds us to exercise self-control, knowing the greater joy of being in Christ.
Our emotions matter, but they don’t define reality. In fact, they often contrast with what is true. God’s Word encourages us with his personal and intimate presence. He is near and never leaves. This truth will anchor us in times of chaos and silence. He sees and hears us. God is enough and he is with us.
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2. We Are Deeply Loved
God comes near to us because he desires relationship with us. He loves us deeply. In a world which will measure our performance or other standards of worth, God says something radically important: nothing can separate us from his love. “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). God’s love doesn’t depend upon his emotions, like ours often does. His love doesn’t fade or fail when we weaken or struggle. He continues to love us through hard times, doubts, and disappointments. His love isn’t passive but active. His love pursues us for our good. We are each his special treasure and creation, fearfully and wonderfully made.
The Father’s love seeks our eternal good, the best for us and all around us. Because an eternity with us is his goal, he forgives and redeems if we will rest in and follow him. When emotions overwhelm us, God’s love remains unshakable. His voice reminds us who we are in him — beloved and secure. Even when we feel lost and unloved, he sees us and loves us.
Let this truth settle in our hearts: we are deeply loved, right now, as we are. We don’t have to work for or earn it; we can live from the greatest love of all. This love exists in Christ, revealed through his death and resurrection, so we must turn to him and find his love as the anchor.
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3. Jesus Understands Our Struggle
God doesn’t just say he understands our struggle. Through Jesus coming to be with us, he suffered every temptation and struggle, yet without sin. He doesn’t dismiss our pain or speak from ignorance. He experienced a human life in all its agony and betrayal, and he gives truth to our situation.
John 11:35 writes these simple words, “Jesus wept,” but they carry such depth. The Son of God — fully divine and fully human — stood near his friends as they grieved Lazarus and cried. He didn’t only see or hear the pain but experienced it with them.
When Lazarus died, Jesus knew he would raise him to life again. Yet he didn’t tell the grieving crowd or Lazarus’ sisters to just, “Get over it.” He chose to stop and weep in sorrow. Because he cared for them and understood. Even though the end of the story would be miraculous, our pain still matters to him.
Jesus doesn’t dismiss fear or frustration. Instead he meets us there, suffering with us, and then he calls us forward to the miracle he has waiting for us. It’s not an either-or situation, it’s both-and. He enters the pain of death with us, understanding it, and leads us to resurrection. We don’t have to hide or pretend. Jesus will weep with us, too, and he will remind us this temporary situation — even death — isn’t the end of the story.
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4. He Invites Us to Cast Our Cares on Him
The Father not only understands our struggle, he invites us to cast our cares upon him. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). God will not force us to come to him with our emotions. As God does all things willingly and intentionally, he desires for us to participate in the same way. We must choose to bring him our emotions, laying them before him, because we know his great care for us. We can trust him with our burdens. We don’t have to carry them.
In our lives, things like fear, worry, pressure, and more start to pile up, and we often try to deal with it alone. But this is pride. We weren’t designed to do this. God created us to walk in dependent, close relationship with him who cares for us, died and rose for us. He sees our struggle and says, “Give it to me.”
Casting our cares isn’t a one-time thing. We have to choose to trust him daily, as a discipline, handing over our worries and trusting him even more.
Let us speak our fears and worries to him who cares. He knows them already and wants us to rely upon him, casting our cares completely onto the all-powerful and loving Father.
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5. Peace and Joy Exist in Christ
Just as God’s love and care existed before we did, so does his peace and joy. As creations, we had a beginning. God did not. His love, peace, and joy also didn’t have a beginning. What a gift. God offers us his eternal and unchangeable peace and joy when we come to him. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” And Nehemiah 8:10 teaches us, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” When the emotions of life threaten to drown us, we can cling to God and experience a peace and joy beyond the situations of this temporary life.
Peace isn’t the absence of conflict or having a perfect life in this world, like a nice vacation. God’s peace makes no sense to this world because it comes from heaven. The Father’s shalom (peace) is holistic, bringing every part of our inner being to peace. When we fix our minds on him, trusting him, he guards our hearts and surrounds us with peace.
His joy happens the same way. Happiness depends upon our situation or the moment. Joy runs deeper beyond the temporary to the goodness of God, which doesn’t change. Joy doesn’t deny pain or hardship but helps us to see a greater blessing and delight in the unchangeable and glorious God. This delight gives us strength to endure through the difficult times and have hope in the future.
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6. God Is in Control
God’s truth can’t be an anchor for us unless he can fulfill his promises. Emotions can cause and react to chaos, making us feel out of control. God brings us security through this truth — he is in complete control. “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19). Emotions don’t get the final word. God does, for he reigns. Even now, when we feel the world is falling apart, he sits firm on the throne. His authority encompasses every detail. Nothing escapes his rule.
He knows all things, and he controls all things. He sees the unseen and knows what we can’t. He doesn’t lose control when we do. Our circumstances will shift and change, and we’ll experience trouble. But God remains steady. He governs with justice, redemption, power, and love. We aren’t at the mercy of chance or chaos. The same God who loves us and seeks our eternal good rules sovereignly over everything we face.
We all have moments we think everything’s falling apart. But we must choose to remember: God still sits on the throne, and he loves us. His rule can’t be shaken. He can’t be overthrown.
So we surrender to him, trusting the God whose Word holds all things together, knowing he cares for us and will bring us good if we believe.
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7. He Works All Things for Our Good
Human words can’t properly express the magnificence of God’s character and promises, the good he has prepared for us. Romans 8:28 famously says, “And we know that in all things God words for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
During the darkest days, God continues to work for the benefit of those who follow him. No matter now we feel, God orchestrates all things for our good. Not half or most things, but all things.
The verse doesn’t promise all our situations will be good. In fact, Jesus promises trouble (John 16:33). However, Paul does declare that God will use all things, good and bad, for the ultimate good of his people: those who have repented and surrendered their lives to him and his purposes. This promise isn’t for all people, but those who have been born again and remain faithful. If we continue to cling to the Father through the Son and the Spirit, God will take what the enemy means for harm and transform it for our good. Nothing is wasted in his hands.
Just as the cross was agonizing, it wasn’t the end of the story. God used the cross to give Jesus a name above all names and to redeem for himself a people. When grief presses in, we must trust that God isn’t finished yet.
So don’t lose heart. The story isn’t over. God is still writing, and his ending is always good.
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