We all run two programs. We run a spiritual and an emotional program. Have you ever heard anyone talk about how the two programs work together? It’s always baffled me that you hear bible scriptures and spiritual truth explained in great detail, but the emotional program seems like an unsolved puzzle. If God made us, then he designed both systems.

I have been trying to solve this mystery for ten years. Here’s my current thinking.

The Spiritual program sits on top of the Emotional program. The Emotional program is the older program. Sensing, feeling, and interpreting began at birth. The later program is the Spiritual program. Spiritual thinking requires maturity and accountability. The Spiritual program is the big, grand, high-level program. Most of us spend our whole lives trying to make spiritual principles a priority over our emotional responses.

The goal is to run both programs in harmony.

Everyone knows or has heard the following story. A religious leader who loves God, Jesus, and the church has as a moral failure. What happened? He never stopped loving God, the church, or Jesus. But something in the deeper emotional program caused him to fail. There was some unmet need in his soul. His Emotional program. He had old unresolved boyhood pain. Maybe he never felt loved. Or he struggled with unworthiness. Then, something got past his defenses and promised to solve that unmet emotional need. And he made a big spiritual mistake.

He didn’t fall because of his Spiritual program. No, he still loves God, Jesus, and the church. He fell because some unmet emotional need in his soul got triggered. And he made a poor emotional choice.

The morale of this blog is to make sure you and God are working on both levels. The bigger, eternal, spiritual story, and the deeper, emotionally wounded boy story.

Prayer

Father, help me run both my spiritual program and my emotional program in harmony. You made me spiritual and you made me emotional. You love both of these programs. And, you want me to run on peace, rest, and joy on both levels. Help me get there. I make you Lord of both levels of my life. Amen.

Meditate on these words of Jesus.

It was the garden scene and he mentioned the two programs.

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
Matthew 26:41 NIV

(Note: You are actually one whole integrated being. I bring out both of these programs separately for illustrative purposes.)