3 Natural Emotions Deny Faith in God and Maintain Unrealistic Thinking
By Maurice E. Wagner, Th.M.,Ph.D.
Like a tripod holds a camera firmly, Satan uses our three natural emotions like a tripod to invade our minds with self-assertive efforts that show no faith in God. If we are feeling guilty over something we have done, we feel most insecure. This insecurity makes us instantly angry which is an illusion of self-sovereignty, free from responsibility. We do as we please while angry, and feel right in doing so. When anger fails to maintain this unrealism, we become fearful, for we have lost our defense against the insecurity caused by guilt. Our fear, or anxiety, causes us to be unrealistic in escaping from the present to thinking as though the future were the present.
Then we try to resolve our fear of humiliation and punishment by an unrealistic attempt to construct a safety type of situation.
Finally, we are back to the guilt where we have to fact the consequences of our bad choices. “Only God can forgive sin” so we are back to square one where we began. This is
God’s way of lovingly leading us to receive Christ as our atonement for our sins, and be forgiven by Him.
This series of thirteen studies is intended to make us aware of how easily Satan can trick us into becoming self-reliant and avoid exercising faith in God and His way of salvation from the consequences of our sins.
By Maurice E. Wagner, Th.M.,Ph.D.
Like a tripod holds a camera firmly, Satan uses our three natural emotions like a tripod to invade our minds with self-assertive efforts that show no faith in God. If we are feeling guilty over something we have done, we feel most insecure. This insecurity makes us instantly angry which is an illusion of self-sovereignty, free from responsibility. We do as we please while angry, and feel right in doing so. When anger fails to maintain this unrealism, we become fearful, for we have lost our defense against the insecurity caused by guilt. Our fear, or anxiety, causes us to be unrealistic in escaping from the present to thinking as though the future were the present.
Then we try to resolve our fear of humiliation and punishment by an unrealistic attempt to construct a safety type of situation.
Finally, we are back to the guilt where we have to fact the consequences of our bad choices. “Only God can forgive sin” so we are back to square one where we began. This is
God’s way of lovingly leading us to receive Christ as our atonement for our sins, and be forgiven by Him.
This series of thirteen studies is intended to make us aware of how easily Satan can trick us into becoming self-reliant and avoid exercising faith in God and His way of salvation from the consequences of our sins.
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