Jesus Understands Your Emotions, Temptations & Frustrations
If you’ve ever been controlled by hurt feelings and offenses, you know it’s a miserable state to be in.
So it’s important to be honest with yourself if you want to learn how to walk free from offense in this life. Take a few moments to ponder these questions:
When someone does something that’s disappointing to you, how successful are you at dealing with it without taking offense or nursing hurt feelings?
Is there one particular person who can easily throw you into emotional turmoil that tears you up on the inside?
Do you find that the devil uses one person or a particular situation over and over to steal your peace and joy?
Is there a person in your life whom you love but whose insensitivity to your feelings frequently hurts and upsets you?
Do you harbor ill feelings toward someone? Do you wish you didn’t feel the way you do about him or her?
Are you emotionally paralyzed by what someone has done to you or failed to do for you?
Are you free from offense, or are you a prisoner of hurt feelings?
Do you allow offense to roll around in your head and emotions until it finally begins to steal your peace and make you upset?
Have you tried unsuccessfully to conquer bitterness in prayer? Have you been unable to fully forgive certain people in your life for the offenses they committed against you?
We’ve all been offended from time to time by something someone said or did or by what he or she didn’t say or do. Sometimes we’re even tempted to get offended by a mere look someone gives us. Offense is something everyone has to deal with at one time or another.
Jesus is Touched with the Feelings of Your Infirmities
Jesus Christ empathizes with every temptation and struggle you face in this life. He identifies and sympathizes with you. He has compassion for you about what you’re feeling and the situation you’re facing.
Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” This verse declares that when Jesus walked on the earth, He was God in the flesh. Yet He still faced every temptation you and I face in life.
This is one reason Jesus understands the emotions, frustrations, and temptations you face in life. He has been where you are. He has felt what you feel. He has overcome the temptations you are now trying to overcome.
Hebrews 4:16 says we have a priest who is “…touched with the feelings of our infirmities….” That’s why the next verse urges us, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
If Jesus was really tempted in all points as you are, it means:
If you’re tempted to steal, Jesus was tempted to steal too.
If you’re tempted to lie, so was Jesus.
If you’re tempted sexually, Jesus was also confronted by sexual temptation.
If you’re tempted to wear your feelings on your shoulder and get them hurt all the time, Jesus was tempted to feel this way as well.
If you’re tempted to hate and to hold a grudge, Jesus was tempted in exactly the same way. (Just think how you might be tempted to feel if Judas had betrayed you!)
If you’re tempted to take offense, Jesus was also tempted to be offended.
If you’re tempted to give up and quit, Jesus was tempted to give up and quit too.
There’s no need to feel too embarrassed to go to Jesus. If anyone can understand what you’re going through right now, it’s Jesus! He has been tempted in all points just like you, yet He never succumbed to temptation. Because of what Jesus went through, He understands your dilemma. He is familiar with disappointment. He has experienced the temptation to get frustrated and upset. That’s the reason
Hebrews 4:16 says to come boldly to the throne of grace!
As One who has faced every temptation you personally face, Jesus is on your side and is standing by to assist you. When you come to Him, you will obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus Was Tempted to Get Offended and Upset
You may ask, “Rick, how do you know that Jesus was tempted to get offended and upset or to allow His feelings to get hurt?”
I know because the Bible very clearly states that Jesus faced each temptation you and I face in life. Jesus never fell into one of Satan’s traps, but He definitely faced these frustrations. If Jesus hadn’t been tempted by every temptation as we are, He wouldn’t be able to understand us and serve as our Great High Priest.
I can only imagine the frustration Jesus must have felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had invested three and a half years of His life into His disciples. Now for the first time, He needed them. So He asked three of His disciples to pray for Him during His hour of temptation (see Matthew 26:37- 45). Jesus asked them for only one hour of prayer, but instead of praying, they fell asleep. He returned a second time and pleaded with them to pray with Him, but once more they fell asleep. For a third time, Jesus came and besought His disciples to pray, but again they fell asleep on the job.
What if you had been in Jesus’ shoes that night? What if you had given three years of your life to these disciples — but when you finally asked them to help you for once, they kept failing you again and again?
It would be normal for a person in this situation to be tempted to become resentful, upset, or even offended. Anyone in that position would be tempted to think, How dare you sleep on the job after all I’ve done for you! I’m sorry I ever did anything for you bunch of ingrates! But Jesus never fell into that trap. Instead, as He hung on the Cross, He prayed, “…Father, forgive them...” (Luke 23:34).
People’s Inconsistent Behavior Can Be Surprising!
Do your best to understand people, but never be too shocked if people do something that takes you by surprise!
People can be quite a mystery. You finally think you have them all figured out, and then they do something that totally blows your mind! You never would have dreamed in a million years that they’d do something so crazy or inconsistent. That’s why if you’re going to live a happy life, you have to learn how to forgive and overlook people’s inconsistencies, lack of commitment, unfaithfulness, temper tantrums, and mood swings — as well as all the other defects connected with being a human being.
Honestly, there are days I don’t even understand my own moods. Therefore, I know I have to show mercy when I see others act differently than I expect them to. When I’m tempted to get upset with Denise, my sons, or my associates in the ministry, I stop to remind myself that I’m not perfect either. I’m sure there are moments when these same people are just as bewildered by me as I am by them!
Do you always understand your own moods?
Do you always have a grip on your own emotions?
Do you ever do anything that’s inconsistent with what you know is right?
Do you ever fall short of the standards you set and demand of those around you?
I can’t complain too much about others being a mystery because I’m such a mystery to myself sometimes! Oh, how I long for the day when I walk in the Spirit 100 percent of the time. Unfortunately, it looks like that won’t happen until my mortal flesh puts on incorruption!
When we receive our glorified bodies and go to Heaven, all our inconsistencies, mood swings, double standards, and complex emotions will be gone. We’ll be in good moods forever! Until then, we have to maintain an attitude of forgive- ness and extend the same mercy to others that we expect them to extend to us.
Forgive me for being so gut-level honest, but until that day when the entire Body of Christ sees Jesus face to face, believers will experience moments when:
Husbands’ behavior upsets their wives.
Wives make their husbands angry.
Children disappoint their parents.
Parents lose their tempers with their kids and hurt their children’s feelings.
Friends are nowhere to be found when they are desperately needed.
Employees betray their fellow employees to get a better job or promotion.
Employers play favorites with employees rather than dealing with them fairly and justly as they should.
Church members talk about their pastor behind his back.
Pastors occasionally repeat what was told to them in confidence, wounding and hurting the church member who privately confided in him.
Even Christians who spend hours in prayer, read the Word, pray in the Spirit, and seek to live a holy life sometimes get in the flesh, doing and saying things they later regret. It’s just part of being human.
