Have you ever heard the phrase, “Just sit with your emotions”? At first, it may sound strange, almost like being told to sit in a windowless room and stare at a wall.
Sitting with our emotions is not passive, but rather an active process of engaging honestly with the way God designed us. The phrase is an expression for processing our emotions. The Bible tells many stories of people who displayed a variety of emotions before God. In each instance, we are given a model of how to biblically process emotions.
Why Is It Important to Process Emotions?
When emotions go unchecked and remain hidden, they can wreak havoc on our bodies and hijack our thinking. This can infect all that we do. By bringing our fears, anger, and loneliness to the Lord, we experience two things: a deeper sense of God’s presence in adversity and a renewed mind. Both are transformative.
The goal isn’t to just survive the trials of life, but to grow through them. Processing emotions is a part of how we do this. Here are four things you can do to biblically bring your emotions to the Lord.
1. Name What You Are Feeling
Counselor Brad Hambrick said, “You can’t face what you haven’t felt.” Additionally, you can’t feel what you haven’t named.
The first step in processing emotions is to honestly name what you’re feeling. When we vocalize what we’re feeling, we understand two things: the facts about what happened to us and the impact those things had on us. The classic therapy questions “What happened?” and “How did that make you feel?” are helpful for this very reason. Naming emotions brings clarity.
Tools like the feelings wheel can be helpful in identifying specific words for what you’re experiencing. Instead of saying, “I’m stressed,” you might realize “I feel anxious because I’m afraid of failing.”
The Bible is full of examples of honest displays of emotions.
- Moses expressed anger when Israel turned to idolatry (Ex. 32:19).
- Job cried out in anguish over his suffering (Job 3).
- Jesus was “sorrowful and troubled” in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37-39).
- Mary lifted up a prayer of gratitude and joy (Luke 1:46–47).
Seeing the humanity of these people in the Bible should bring comfort when we face emotional turmoil.
2. Turn to God in Prayer
Once we’ve identified what we’re feeling, the next step is bringing it to God in prayer. The Psalms give us rich examples of this, and the biblical language of lament shows us how. Mark Vroegop explains that a “A lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.”[1]
Notice how David uses lament in Psalm 18: “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice” (Ps. 18:6). David acknowledged his raw emotion and expressed confidence in God’s response.
When we tell God how we feel, it’s an act of faith. After Israel cried out under the weight of slavery, we read, “God saw the people of Israel and God knew” (Ex. 2:23-25). That verse reminds us of God’s character. He is not distant, but near. He sees, he knows, and he cares. This gives us confidence to honestly bring our emotions to God in prayer.
3. Rehearse the Gospel
After expressing our emotions to God in prayer, we rehearse the gospel to ourselves.
Again, the Psalms model this shift. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Ps. 42:5).
Rehearsing the gospel reminds us of who God is—that he is with us, that he is for us, and that he is at work in every circumstance. My favorite poem about the gospel beautifully captures this truth:
“And each day I’m made a bit more as I should,
His grace using all things to render me good.
Yes, even in trials his grace abounds too
and does me the good He assigns it to do . . .
He even will send me some heart rendering pain,
so I’ll learn new ways and His holiness gain.
His disciplines are always with love imbued,
a love that seeks ever my ultimate good.”
— Milton Vincent[2]
When we remember the gospel in the midst of trials, even painful emotions can become a pathway to deeper faith and trust in God.
4. Process in Community
When something hard or confusing happens in life, what do you do? You talk about it. This is a normal response to make meaning of what we’ve experienced.
Processing emotions in a community brings clarity and a new perspective. It also provides the opportunity for encouragement, accountability, and gentle reminders when we’re stuck in patterns of fear or self-doubt. We need people. God never intended us to carry our burdens alone (Rom. 12:15). Talking with a trusted friend or community can be a powerful way to verbalize what you’re feeling.
This brings greater clarity so you can present them to God in prayer.
God Is Near
To “sit with your emotions” is not about wallowing in them, but instead about processing them. If we only try to push emotions aside, we miss the opportunity to learn from them and to encounter God in deeper ways. Processing our emotions then is a means by which we can experience God’s presence and grace.
As we do the work of processing our emotions, it doesn’t mean that the feelings will disappear. But it does mean that God is with us, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18). Even when emotions remain heavy, God is near. So, bring your emotions to God and rest in his presence (Ps. 16:11).
[1] Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 28.
[2] Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love (Focus Publishing, 2011), 84, 87.
