情感
【基督徒要善于维持情感的平衡】基督徒应学习唱诗赞美。赞美的时候可以发泄情感，因情感也是神所赐的。人赞美神时若没有任何情感的冲动，恐怕他根本未曾认识神。所以不用压抑情感，但同时也不要完全失去控制。过分注重情感是把注意力集中在情感上，而不是在神身上。这是以自我为中心，不是敬拜。有些人受感动时会大大地情感冲动，甚至大哭大闹，在地上打滚等等。这有时候是正当的，没有甚么羞耻，但不应常常如此。一般来说，情感的发泄与控制应维持平衡。生命不成熟的人，情感没有节制，只会借口被圣灵充满，而大大地发泄情感罢了。─《扎根与结果》周功和
【我们对神的爱仍有掺杂】大多数的信徒爱神，除了神以外，总有些其他的人、事、物掺杂在其中；在对神的爱里还掺杂着己的需要。更次一等的爱神──也是最普遍的──是一种完全为着「满足己」的爱神。他寻求神是根据他爱神的时候的感觉。当这些感觉过去时，这个信徒对神可能再也没有兴趣了！换言之，当他的「感觉」消失时，他对神的爱也随之枯萎了！
这是为了自己好处而爱神的阶段，我们若要得着真正的属灵长进，就必须脱离这个阶段。我们爱祂，必须没有在祂以外的任何目的；我们也必须放下所有的「感觉」，不能以此为根基。我们必须不顾自己的属灵情形而爱祂；无论我觉得属灵生命枯干或丰富，都要爱祂。我们在爱神的时候，自然会得着一种极深的满足，但是我们对神的爱必须能够超越这个，否则我们就将房屋建造在沙土的根基上。─
盖恩夫人《灵命的历境与危机》
【Depression】A depressive is driving down a country road and
has a flat tire. He looks in his trunk for a jack. Not finding one, he spots a
farmhouse about a quarter-mile away with a truck in the front yard and says to
himself, “I’ll go borrow the farmer’s jack.” As the stranded motorist
approaches the house, he is feeling bad—one, for failing to have a jack; two,
for having to depend on someone else for help. As he gets nearer the farmhouse,
he begins to expect rejection and to get angry over that expectation. As he
becomes more and more angry at his unmet dependency needs in the past, he
projects to the farmer the anger he feels toward himself for needing the jack
and toward others for disappointing him. By the time he knocks on the door and
the farmer opens it, the depressive yells, “Keep your jack!” This will most
likely guarantee that he doesn’t get the jack, so the motorist walks back,
re-convinced that you can’t depend on people.
Very
often our outlook and expectations determine the results.
【Depression】A man and his wife who were on a long trip
stopped at a full-service gas station. After the station attendant had washed
their car’s windshield, the man in the car said to the station attendant, “It’s
still dirty. Wash it again.”
So
the station attendant complied. After washing it again, the man in the car
angrily said, “It’s still dirty. Don’t you know how to wash a windshield?”
Just
then the man’s wife reached over, removed her husband’s glasses from his face,
and cleaned them with a tissue. Then he put them back on and behold—the
windshield was clean!
Our
mental attitude has a great deal to do with how we look at things. The whole
world can appear pretty bleak if we have a depressed mental attitude. Yet how
bright the world can appear if we have a joyful attitude of hope.
【Depression】Karl Menninger, a famous psychiatrist, once
gave a lecture on mental health and was answering questions from the audience.
“What would you advise a person to do,” asked one, “if that person felt a
nervous breakdown coming on?”
Most
people expected Menninger to reply: “Consult a psychiatrist.” To their
astonishment, he replied, “Lock up your house, go across the railway tracks,
find someone in need, and then do something to help that person.”
【Emotions】The human
personality is said to consist of roughly four-fifths emotions and one-fifth
intellect. This means that our decisions are arrived at on the basis of 80
percent emotion and only 20 percent intellect. To engage in a confrontation, or
even a discussion, without taking emotions into account is to be only 20
percent effective in your dealings with people.