When it comes to our emotions, says Bible teacher and author Carol McLeod, we all have a choice to make: “Do our emotions reveal self, or do our emotions reveal Jesus? Do our emotions show and tell past pain, or do they reveal the healing work of Jesus Christ? It’s time for you to make up your mind.”
In her Holy Estrogen series, Lesson 12, of the “Jolt of Joy” podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, McLeod says “regardless of your emotional history, you can change. And the reason you can change is because of what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for you.”
McLeod dives deep into the new Greek words Paul used in Ephesians 2 to describe Christ’s transforming work. One of these, she says, is synchothiso, which refers to our being seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). “As we travel through life, we have His perspective and His point of view. We will see what He sees, and it’s a seat of revelation,” she explains.
When you fly on an airplane, McLeod tells listeners, you now have the opportunity to watch TV from several thousand feet in the air. “My favorite channel was the one that tracked where you were going. It showed how fast the airplane was going, what the current altitude was … And I knew the exact moment that I was over Scranton, Pennsylvania, even though I couldn’t see it as I looked out the window. … Now that’s what synchothiso does for you. You have heaven’s perspective on earth’s situation.”
And that heavenly perspective is vital, McLeod says. “You don’t take things so personally anymore. But you see God’s picture, you see what He’s trying to develop in you. And in the world around you, your perspective is no longer so small or so one-dimensional; you can see what’s happening all around you, because you have synchothiso.“
For more of how a heavenly perspective can change how you respond on earth, listen to the podcast!
