What the Bible Says About Feelings – Jeremiah 17:9 Heart

Have you ever been hijacked by your own emotions? One minute, life is fine. The next, a tidal wave of anxiety or anger crashes over you, and you feel like you’re being pulled under. In those moments, the world has plenty of advice. “Follow your heart.” “Trust your gut.” “Do what feels right.” It sounds simple, even liberating. But if you’re trying to live by faith, that advice just creates confusion.

We read a verse like Jeremiah 17:9—”The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?”—and suddenly we’re stuck. How can we trust something the Bible itself calls deceitful? If you’ve ever wrestled with that tension, this article is for you. We are going to dive deep into what the bible says about feelings and explore the messy, beautiful, and often confusing world of our emotions as believers.

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Key Takeaways

• Feelings are a gift from God, a core part of being human. They aren’t sins, but they aren’t your ultimate source of truth either.
• The Bible is clear: the unredeemed human heart, where our feelings come from, is bent and unreliable (Jeremiah 17:9).
• Look at the people in the Bible, including Jesus Himself. They felt things deeply, proving that spirituality isn’t about being emotionless.
• The Christian’s job is to manage their feelings by lining them up with the truth of God’s Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
• A healthy approach means you acknowledge your feelings, talk to God about them, and then choose to act in faith, even when you feel the exact opposite.

Have You Ever Felt Betrayed by Your Own Heart?

I remember a time in my early twenties when I was absolutely certain I had found my career. This wasn’t some pro-con list. It was a feeling, a deep-down conviction that this was it. Every part of me buzzed with excitement. I prayed, and the feeling just got stronger. I took this emotional high as a definite green light from God. So I jumped in with both feet, pouring all my time, money, and hope into it.

It was a disaster.

A year later, I was burned out, broke, and embarrassed. The passion I’d felt had totally blinded me to the practical problems and the wise advice I was ignoring. My heart, the thing I was so sure was leading me to my destiny, had walked me straight into a wall. Looking back, I can see my feelings weren’t a divine compass. They were just… feelings. A powerful mix of my own ambition, my desire to be somebody, and a genuine but totally misguided excitement. My heart had deceived me, and it was a painful, humbling lesson in the wisdom of Jeremiah 17:9. That whole experience forced me to ask a much bigger question.

Why Does the Bible Give Such a Harsh Warning in Jeremiah 17:9?

It’s a tough verse to swallow. Deceitful? Desperately wicked? It sounds so final. To get it, you have to understand what the Bible means by “heart.” In Hebrew thought, the heart (lev) wasn’t just where you felt things, like on a Valentine’s Day card. It was the command center for your entire inner life. It included your mind, your will, your conscience, and your emotions. It was the source of every thought, desire, and choice you made.

So, when Jeremiah gives this stark diagnosis, he’s describing the default setting of humanity after the fall in Genesis. Sin didn’t just break our relationship with God; it corrupted the whole system. Our desires got twisted, our thinking got foggy, and our feelings became unreliable narrators of what was really going on. The verse is a core truth of the gospel: we’re more broken than we think, and we desperately need a heart transplant that only God can perform. It’s not a verse meant to crush us. It’s a diagnosis meant to drive us to the only cure: Jesus.

So, Are My Feelings a Sin? Did God Make a Mistake?

This is a huge question. If the heart is deceitful, is every feeling that comes out of it automatically wrong? The answer is a clear and simple no. God designed us with the capacity for emotion. Feelings are a feature, not a bug. Just think about it. The Bible talks about God in emotional terms. He feels love, joy, compassion, grief over sin, and righteous anger. We are made in His image, and that includes our ability to feel things deeply.

Our emotions are like the indicator lights on a car’s dashboard. They’re just telling you something is happening. The check engine light isn’t the problem; it’s an alert that there’s a problem under the hood. In the same way, feeling sad might alert you to a loss you need to grieve. Feeling angry might alert you to an injustice. Feeling joy alerts you to a blessing. The feelings aren’t the sin. The problem comes from how we interpret them and what we do next. They are data, not directors.

Didn’t Jesus Experience Strong Emotions?

If we need any proof that emotions are a good part of God’s creation, all we have to do is look at Jesus. He was fully God and fully man, and his humanity came with a rich, powerful emotional life.

• He felt deep sorrow. When his friend Lazarus died, the Bible gives us its shortest verse: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). He knew he was about to raise Lazarus, yet he was so moved by the pain of his friends and the brokenness of a world full of death that he cried. He didn’t bottle it up; he entered right into the grief.
• He felt righteous anger. When he saw the temple being used for exploitation, he didn’t just write a strongly worded letter. He flipped tables. He made a whip and drove the money changers out (Matthew 21:12-13). This wasn’t a selfish tantrum. It was a holy anger aimed at injustice.
• He felt crushing anguish. In the Garden of Gethsemane, facing the cross, he was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38). His emotional pain was so real and intense it was physically excruciating.

But here’s the key: in every situation, Jesus’s feelings were perfectly submitted to the will of his Father. His grief didn’t turn into despair. His anger didn’t lead to sin. His anguish didn’t make him quit. He shows us it’s possible to feel everything completely without letting those feelings take over the controls.

If My Heart is Deceitful, How Can I Possibly Trust My Gut?

This is the million-dollar question in a world that constantly screams, “Trust yourself!” The biblical answer is both simple and incredibly hard: you don’t. Not as your final authority, anyway. We don’t put our ultimate trust in what we feel. Instead, we learn to run our feelings through the filter of God’s unchanging Word. Our feelings get a voice, but God’s Word gets the final vote.

Think of it like sailing a boat. The wind is your feelings. It’s powerful, and you need it to move. But you’d be a fool to let the wind decide your destination. You have a rudder—your will, guided by the Spirit—and a compass, which is God’s Word. You use the wind to get going, but you constantly steer with the rudder, checking your compass to make sure you’re still heading in the right direction. To sail only by the wind of your feelings is to get “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14).

What’s the Difference Between Feelings and the Holy Spirit’s Guidance?

This can be really hard to figure out, especially when you’re new to faith. I used to think any strong positive feeling was the Holy Spirit, and any bad feeling was the enemy. It’s much more subtle than that. Here’s a helpful way to think about it:

Feelings are often loud, urgent, and all about me—my comfort, my wants, my fears. They are a reaction to what’s happening around me. If things are good, I feel good. If they’re bad, I feel bad.

The Holy Spirit’s guidance, on the other hand, is usually a quieter, steadier thing that exists underneath the noisy surface of my emotions. His leading will never contradict the Bible. It produces things like love, joy, peace, patience, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), even when life is hard. The Spirit points me away from myself and toward Jesus. He gives a “peace of God, which transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). That peace isn’t the absence of problems; it’s the presence of God in the middle of them. That’s a much better guide than the shifting sand of our emotions.

How Do I Deal with Overwhelming Emotions the Biblical Way?

Knowing that feelings aren’t the boss is one thing. Actually dethroning them during a panic attack is another. A few years ago, a crisis at work threw me into a season of intense anxiety. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, mind spinning out worst-case scenarios. My feelings were screaming at me: “You’re finished! It’s over! You failed!” Every part of me was on high alert.

In that season, my feelings were a terrible guide. They told me to hide, to lash out, to give up. But deep down, I knew God’s Word said something different. It said He would never leave me. It said His grace was enough. It said I could do all things through Him. The battle, then, wasn’t to stop feeling anxious. The battle was to believe God’s truth more than I believed my feelings.

It meant literally getting out of bed and pacing my living room, speaking Scripture out loud over my fears. It meant being brutally honest in prayer, saying, “God, I feel like I’m drowning, but Your Word says you’re my rock. I don’t feel it, but I’m choosing to believe You.” It was a slow, exhausting process of submitting my feelings to His truth, one panic-filled moment at a time.

Can I Be Honest with God About How I Really Feel? Just Look at the Psalms!

If you ever feel like you have to put on a happy face for God, go read the Psalms. The psalmists, especially David, held nothing back. They were experts in raw, unfiltered prayer. They shouted, they cried, they questioned, and they complained.

Psalm 13 is a perfect example. It starts with pure desperation: “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” David isn’t pretending he’s fine. He’s dumping all of his frustration and pain right at God’s feet.

But he doesn’t stay there. The genius of these psalms of lament is the turn. After pouring out everything they feel, the psalmists almost always make a conscious choice to pivot back to what they know is true about God. Psalm 13 ends with this incredible shift: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” He didn’t wait to feel trusting. He chose to trust, and that act of faith became an anchor for his out-of-control emotions. This is our model. Acknowledge the feeling, pour it out to God, and then anchor your soul to the truth of who He is.

What Does “Taking Every Thought Captive” Actually Look Like?

The Apostle Paul gives us a battle plan in 2 Corinthians 10:5, where he talks about taking “captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Notice he says “thought,” not “feeling.” That’s because our feelings usually follow our thoughts. If you can get a handle on your thoughts, you can get a handle on your emotions. This isn’t about stuffing your feelings down; it’s about putting them on trial. Here’s how you can do it:

• Acknowledge the Feeling. First, just name it. No judgment. Don’t say, “I shouldn’t be angry.” Just say, “Okay, I’m feeling intense anger right now.” Saying it out loud takes away some of its power.
• Interrogate the Thought. Ask yourself: What belief is fueling this feeling? With anger, the thought might be, “This is unfair!” With anxiety, it might be, “Something terrible is going to happen, and I can’t handle it.”
• Align with Truth. Now, compare that thought to Scripture. Is it really true? God’s Word says life isn’t always fair, but He is always good. It says my worth isn’t based on what others do. It says God is in control and will give me what I need. Find a specific truth from the Bible that directly punches a hole in the lie you’re believing.
• Act in Faith. Based on God’s truth, what’s the next right thing to do? This is where you choose to obey God instead of your emotions. Even though you feel like lashing out, you choose to speak with grace. Even though you feel like hiding from the world, you choose to get up and do the next thing. That’s how you build spiritual muscle.

What About Positive Feelings? Can I Trust My Joy and Peace?

It’s easy to focus on the negative feelings, but what about the good ones? Can we trust our joy, peace, and excitement? Yes, but with the same discernment. True joy and peace are fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are often a wonderful sign that we are walking in step with God. When our hearts are aimed at His purposes, we’ll often feel a deep sense of contentment.

But we still have to be careful. A happy feeling isn’t always a stamp of God’s approval. It’s possible to feel happy while making a sinful choice. You can feel “at peace” with a bad decision just because you’ve finally given in to temptation and the fight is over. The source of the feeling is what matters.

How Can I Tell If My Happiness is From God or Just… Me?

Here’s a key distinction: worldly happiness is almost always based on circumstances. It depends on things going your way. You get the promotion, your relationship is great, your health is good—so you feel happy. Godly joy, however, is rooted in the unchanging truth of who God is and what Christ has done for you. This is why the Apostle Paul could write from a prison cell, “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). His joy wasn’t based on his circumstances (which were terrible), but on his secure place in Christ.

Likewise, worldly peace is just the absence of conflict. Godly peace is the presence of God in the middle of conflict. If your peace or joy disappears the second trouble shows up, it was probably rooted in your circumstances, not your Savior. But if you can find a solid ground of hope even when the storms are raging, that is a gift from the Spirit. That’s a feeling you can lean into.

Does This Mean I Have to Become an Unfeeling Robot Christian?

Not at all. This is one of the most damaging myths about the Christian life. The goal isn’t to eliminate your emotions; it’s to sanctify them. It’s not about feeling less; it’s about feeling the right things in the right way. As we grow in our faith, the Holy Spirit starts to re-wire our hearts. We begin to love what God loves and hate what He hates. Our emotional responses start to line up more with His. We find joy in things that please Him, we feel real grief over our sin, and we feel compassion for people who are hurting.

I like to think of it as being a thermostat instead of a thermometer. A thermometer is passive. It just reflects the temperature of the room. That’s what it’s like to be ruled by your feelings. A thermostat, on the other hand, is active. It checks the room’s temperature against a set standard and then turns on the heat or the AC to change the room. This is the biblical model. We check our emotional state, we compare it to the standard of God’s truth, and then, with the Spirit’s power, we act to bring our inner world into line with His will. For further reading on this topic, Dallas Theological Seminary has some excellent resources and insights.

Conclusion: Your Feelings are Good Servants, but Terrible Masters

So, what does the Bible say about feelings? It says they are a complex, powerful, God-given part of being human. It says Jesus gets it. And it gives us that critical warning in Jeremiah 17:9: left on their own, our feelings will absolutely lead us off a cliff, because they come from a heart that is bent away from God.

But that is not where the story ends. Because of Jesus, we get a new heart. We get the Holy Spirit. We are no longer slaves to how we feel. We don’t have to stuff our feelings down, and we don’t have to obey them. Instead, we can learn to hold them up to the light.

We can be honest with God about them, check them against His Word, and choose to follow Him even when it feels like walking into a hurricane. This is the path to real emotional health and a faith that is stable, resilient, and deeply rooted—not in the shifting sand of our feelings, but on the unshakeable rock of who God is. It’s a lifelong journey, but His grace is there for every single step.

FAQ – What the Bible Says About Feelings

Jurica Sinko

Jurica Sinko leads Ur Bible as its main author. His writing comes from his deep Christian faith in Jesus Christ. He studied online at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). He took courses in the Bible and theology.

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