G. ADDRESSING EMOTIONAL NEEDS

As I have grown in my walk as a follower of Christ, I have been introduced to a number of helpful disciplines to help my understanding of God’s will and The Word. Upon learning these disciplines, I saw God lead me in his direction for my life. For over 40 years I practiced these disciplines and have seen many wonderful things happen for God’s glory. However, I also discovered that there are many areas of my life that remained hidden and undealt with. I feared rejection if these areas were exposed. I saw anger, control, and compulsions that I knew weren’t pleasing to God.  When I was challenged in these areas I began to explore and found help in reading the journey of Peter Scazzero in his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, in his emotional growth.  He introduces the idea of our life being like an iceberg. There are many things that you can observe about an iceberg from the surface but underneath the surface, there’s so much more that is hidden. This metaphor really connected to my heart. I want to see God transform the hidden areas of my life. What Scazzero helped with was to introduce some helpful disciplines for under the iceberg and key areas to question in our lives. God is looking into our hearts and wants to transform these areas. Let’s take a look at how to start this journey. That comes from understanding the emotional iceberg.

In life, we are often observing that which is on the surface of a person, like an iceberg. However, we know in studying icebergs that the larger part of an iceberg is submerged under the water. In the same way, our outer life is above the water. But the inner life is below the water. We might call the inner life our emotional life and the inner person.

Look at these [1 Samuel 16:7 and 2 Corinthians 4:16-18] verses and let’s learn how we can value both the outer man and the inner man:

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV):

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV):

^“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

1. What did you discover from these verses of scripture?

2. What is your insight into what is the inner man?

3. What is it in us that looks more to the outer than the inner man?

4. How can we can a better grasp of who we are by visiting the inner man?

5. What disciplines do we learn to develop the outer man?

6. What disciplines can we develop to strengthen the inner man?

1. What will you do specifically to grow your inner man and your emotional life?

2. What books are available to read on this subject?

3. Who can you get help from to determine the state of your inner man?

4. How will you get greater focus on that which is unseen?

5. How can you explain better now what it means to be “under the iceberg?”