The Role of Emotion in Spiritual Formation
Maybe the church's deepest failure isn't lack of truth, but failure to take the inner life seriously. (Footnotes by John Ortberg.)
Many Christians were taught emotions are obstacles to spiritual maturity rather than pathways into it. This essay argues the opposite: emotions reveal what the soul truly loves, fears, trusts, and worships. Ignore them, and formation becomes superficial. Attend to them honestly, and even painful feelings can become sacred ground for transformation.
But emotions don’t emerge in isolation, they’re shaped by relationships, beginning in childhood. This reflection explores how attachment patterns influence prayer, trust, intimacy, and even people’s image of God. Suddenly, spiritual struggles look less like moral failure and more like relational wounds searching desperately for healing and security. i
Then comes the uncomfortable truth: unaddressed emotions rarely disappear, they simply become behaviors. This reflection challenges Christians who confuse emotional suppression with holiness. Jesus didn’t invite people to become emotionally numb; he invited transformation from the inside out. Spiritual formation deepens when emotions are neither indulged nor denied, but redeemed through loving awareness.
