Beneath the Surface: Going Deeper Than Appearances! | Part 2: Deeper Currents!

Proverbs 20:5 (NIV)

The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.

Needed Insight #1:

Our Deep-Water Emotions Are God-!

• God feels compassion! (Psalm 103:13)

• He rejoices over His people! (Zeph. 3:17)

• Jesus wept at a funeral, over Jerusalem, in Gethsemane!

• Jesus felt anger at injustice! (Mark 3:5)

• Jesus loved deeply! (John 13:1).

Needed Insight #2:

Our Deep-Water Emotions Are Alerting !

[Signal-Reading Helps for Our Emotions]:

• them!

Psalm 42:5 (NLT)
Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?

Emotions always carry messages worth decoding!

(Recommended: Dr. Daniel Amen books)

[Signal-Reading Helps for Our Emotions]:

• them!

Philippians 4:6–7 (MSG)

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness … will come and settle you down.

James 5:16 (MSG)

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins (areas missing God’s best) to each other and pray for each other so that you can live … whole and healed.

Needed Insight #3:

Our Deep-Water Emotions Must Be !

Romans 12:2 (MSG)
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture (the currents of culture) that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix (steer) your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

[Emotional-Navigation Skills to Develop]:

• Practice before responding!

Proverbs 29:11 (GW)
A fool expresses all his emotions, but a wise person controls them.

Pausing is often the difference between regret and growth!

[Emotional-Navigation Skills to Develop]:

• Trust God’s , not the currents, to set our course!

Psalm 25:5 (NCV)

Guide me in your truth, and teach me, my God, my Savior. I trust you all day long.

Truth doesn’t cancel emotion – it calibrates it!

Ephesians 4:14-15 (TEV)
Then we shall no longer be … carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent. ¹⁵ Instead, by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head.

What happens beneath the surface — in the ocean and in our hearts — shapes everything above it!