Feelings and Faith [eBook]

Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life

Weaves together biblical exposition and practical application to demonstrate how emotions relate to the Christian life.

Emotions are a vital part of what it means to be a human being made in the image of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ. But often our emotions confuse and mislead us. So what is the proper place for emotions in a Christian’s walk of faith?

In Feelings and Faith Brian Borgman draws from his extensive biblical knowledge and his pastoral experience to help readers understand both divine and human emotions. After laying a biblical foundation he moves on to practical application, focusing on how Christians can put to death ungodly emotional displays and also cultivate godly emotions.

This biblically informed, practical volume is helpful for pastors, counselors, and serious-minded Christians who wish to develop a full-orbed faith that encompasses their emotional life.

BRIAN S. BORGMAN is the founding pastor of Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. He earned the DMin from Westminster Seminary California and is the author of My Heart for Thy Cause. He and his wife have three children and live in northwestern Nevada.

“Many professing Christians claim that the way we feel about God is far more important than how we think about God. But many other Christians say feelings are altogether unreliable and unimportant. The way we feel doesn’t matter; what really matters is how we think. The truth is, God wants us to avoid both extremes. God wants his people to experience their relationship to him in the way they think and feel. When you think rightly about God, it helps you feel rightly for God. But the reverse is also true: when you feel rightly for God, it also helps you to think rightly about God. True feelings inform true thoughts just as true thoughts inform true feelings. In this excellent book Brian Borgman shows that love for God is more than feelings, but never less. Furthermore, he shows that there is a huge difference between emotionalism and God-centered emotion. If you have been looking for a clear, practical, and balanced book on the appropriate role of feelings in the Christian life, look no further.”
—Tullian Tchividjian, Founder, LIBERATE; author, One-Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World 

“Brian Borgman has written a wonderfully Christ-centered and God-glorifying book about how, by God’s grace, to restore your emotions to God’s image. Feelings and Faith paints a biblically accurate picture of, as the Puritan pastors expressed it, ‘holy emotions.’ It does not dismiss emotions as some do nor does it worship emotions as some do. This is an important book and I highly recommend it.”
—Martha Peace, Biblical Counselor; Author, The Excellent Wife

“Here is a readable but comprehensive study that unites in biblical friendship the Christian’s theology and experience. With the heart of a pastor, Brain Borgman offers an emotional life line that will stabilize your heart and support your faith. Faith and Feelings needs to be in your personal library. I will return to it time and again-so will you!”
—Jani Ortlund, Executive Vice President, Renewal Ministries; author, Fearlessly Feminine and His Loving Law, Our Lasting Legacy

“As Christians, who hasn’t been confused about the relationship between our faith and our feelings? Are feelings an incredibly important part of your faith, giving you heart-felt ways to express love to God and others, or are they actually to be jettisoned from your faith, being perceived as something dangerous in your relationship to Christ? In this immensely profitable book, Brian Borgman, a very sure-footed guide to this topic, biblically and precisely explains the concept of emotion and how it is to be integrated into one’s walk with the Lord. I know of no other book quite like it. All at once, it is Scriptural, wise, clear, pastoral, transparent, and compelling. This is a great resource for instance, for a pastor who desires help in skillfully shepherding his sheep. It is also a wonderful help for a discipler and/or counselor who wants to instruct his disciples and counselees with their fears, worries, and anxieties. Even further, the principles in this work should prove to be of real, lasting value to any believer in Jesus who earnestly yearns to first grasp and then harness his or her own emotions within the context of a sensate culture that is quickly careening out of emotional control. For all who read this book, we should genuinely applaud Pastor Borgman’s diligent efforts in now bringing us the most helpful volume available on the subject of Faith and Feelings.”
—Lance Quinn, Pastor-Teacher, The Bible Church of Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas

“Brian Borgman has done a lot of work on this crucial topic and it really shows. Emotion is one of the least understood topics in our Bible studies and churches and this is a strong contribution to the discussion. I am thankful to have read Feelings and Faith and know others will also benefit from it. It has been a privilege to get to know Brian and his pastor’s heart for God’s people, which shines through clearly on these pages.”
—Matthew Elliott, Author, Feel: The Power of Listening to Your Heart; Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotion in the New Testament

“Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught us that if we see truth clearly, we must feel it. Authentic faith in the supreme, indomitable goodness of God in sending Jesus Christ as our substitute and redeemer necessarily transforms our feelings. The Holy Spirit awakens earnest love for others from a pure heart (I Peter 1:22), joyful acceptance of loss (Heb. 10:34), and cheerful generosity (II Cor. 9:7). Pastor Brian Borgman’s Feelings and Faith stands in the great tradition of Desiring God by John Piper and Spiritual Depression by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Borgman clearly sets forth the foundational role of truth, unpacks a robust theology of Christian experience, and provides examples of how to mortify sinful emotions and cultivate godly ones. I highly recommend this book.”
—Alex Chediak, Associate Professor of Engineering and Physics, California Baptist University; Author, With One Voice