Difficulty Getting in Touch with Emotional Pain

The inability to tune in to emotion can be a significant obstacle to personal growth, maturity, and the inner healing process. As someone once said, “If we won’t feel it, God can’t heal it.” Although some people are more emotionally aware and expressive than others, everyone was created by God with a rich, complete, and extensive capacity to feel.

This is a key facet of being made in the image of God. In the four gospels we see Jesus, the perfect man, possessing an abundant capacity to both feel and express His emotions. (See Luke 19:41, Matthew 9:36, and Mark 1:40-41.)

If we were created with this capacity, why are some of us so out of touch with our feelings … and why do we find it so difficult to express them? Sometimes there is a blockage God wants to remove.

Listening to God can be especially helpful in assisting us discern if there’s something blocking our ability to feel, to learn to express our emotions, and allow us to enter into the heartbreak of those around us.

First, pray through the Listening 2 God Guidelines to prepare your heart. Then ask Him the following questions. Be sure to jot down what He reveals to you.

a.   Lord Jesus, I know You made me in Your image, with a rich emotional capacity. For some reason, I struggle with tuning in to, identifying, and feeling my emotions. Where did I shut down emotionally? Would You reveal where I began to close up?

b.   God, what happened deep inside of me in the midst of the event or pattern You revealed? Did I believe a lie, make some kind of vow, and/or begin to follow a faulty strategy?

c.    If God reveals a lie, vow, and/or strategy, you’ll want to confess and renounce it following the pattern in the prayer below. Jot down a summary of what takes place.

*** Sample Prayer: Renouncing Lies, Vows and Strategies ***

Lord Jesus, I bring to You the lie, vow and/or strategy I made [specifically name it]. I recognize the power this has had over me. I confess it to You as sin, ask You to forgive me, and receive Your forgiveness. I also want to repent of this vow/strategy. In Your name I hereby renounce the lie/vow/strategy and declare it to be empty, null, and void of power from this day forth. In Your name I also command any demonic spirits that held this in place to now go where You would send them and to never return. I further ask for You to fill any vacated area by a fresh infilling of Your Spirit.

This exercise was adapted from chapter eight of A Guide for Listening and Inner-Healing Prayer: Meeting God in the Broken Places, Pages 109-110.

To assist you in identifying your emotions take a look at “Emotional Words to Describe How I Am Feeling."

We’d love to hear where you find yourself in this area. Leave your comment or write us at L2G.Forum@gmail.com.