It is very unlikely that many of us identify the idol of emotions as one of our main struggles. However, we can find this idol in ourselves when we ask questions like “Is my obedience towards God dependent on my feelings?” or “Do I follow Jesus less in a season when I feel disconnected?” In fact, for most of us, our obedience is bound to our emotions. Evidence of this fact is the self-medication of online shopping when we feel frustrated, or settling for a wrong relationship when we feel lonely. Emotions are good indicators of our need, but they turn sour when we medicate ourselves with the idol of emotions.
The correction of this is not turning around and completely ignoring our emotions. We can take immense cues from the Psalmist of Psalm 42 of how to hold our emotions in tension with relationship to God. The Psalmist admits that there is a cognitive dissonance between the way he feels and what he believes about God. In the situation of despair that the Psalmist was in, most of us either hide from God and medicate with an idol, or we simply try to use God to change our circumstances. In the end, the Psalmist resolves to hope in God. In this same way, we can resolve not to let our emotions dictate our obedience, that we may honor God by struggling in emotional prayer.