Product Description

Many Christians simply aren't experiencing the abundant life. A focus on doing our duty and living by reason--when what we know trumps how we feel--can leave us feeling dead. We need to have our passion restored in order to live the life that Jesus came to give us. In Feel, Matthew Elliott takes a critical look at what our culture and many churches have taught about controlling and ignoring our emotions. He contends that some of the great thinkers of the modern era got it all wrong, and that the Bible teaches that God intends for us to live in and through our emotions. Emotions are good things that God created us to feel. Matthew helps us to understand our emotions and equips us to nurture healthy feelings and reject destructive ones. So refresh yourself, drink deeply, and learn to live with a new, passionate heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62872 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Back Cover

How many times have you heard . . .
“Your feelings cannot be trusted.”
“Emotions can cloud your thinking.”
“God cares about what you believe, not what you feel.”
These statements are myths—unbiblical and untrue.

Matthew Elliott has been on a lifelong quest to find the true role of feelings in one’s spiritual life. In Feel, he reveals his startling conclusions:

• Emotions were given by God to drive us to our best.
• Emotions are among the most logical and dependable things in our lives.
• The true health of our spiritual lives is measured by how we feel.

Discover with Matthew why your spiritual life doesn’t have to be dull and uninspiring. Explore why God created emotions, and why you can have permission to feel.

Customer Reviews

Reason and Passion
"Philosophy, psychology, our scientific culture, and the church have taught us that logic and reason must reign supreme, while feelings are trivialized and seen as something to be suppressed or ignored." ~ pg. 3

Matthew Elliott presents a very personal account of what it means to acknowledge your feelings and allow them to flourish in a safe environment. Currently I've been feeling some kind of awakening where I feel love for God like I never did before. So this book could not have found me at a better time. This book is about living a more fulfilled Christian life.

While emotions can take over your mind and body for days at a time it is important to know when a feeling is right and when it is wrong. Just think about how jealousy can at times drown out all other feelings. Then there is the emotion of love which is highly desired and appreciated as much when it is given as received.

Negative emotions can seems destructive except in cases where you feel righteous anger or hate sin as God does. Can a truly spiritual person allow themselves to feel anger, jealousy and hatred? When we love God, is it a feeling or an action? Do we show our love by following God's commandments or is it a feeling? I believe it is both. Matthew Elliott seeks a balanced approach and shows how fear, worry, anxiety, bitterness, rage, love of money and jealousy have a dark side, while anger and hate can have a positive side in the right context.

Reading this book gave me deeper insights into what it means to be human and what it means to reach for the divine. By weeding out the negative emotions you can come to a place of more peace and allow feelings like love to flourish in your soul's garden. When you strive for a balanced life and your feelings come naturally (vs. suppressing them) then I think you can be happier and more fulfilled. If you feel emotionally dead then this book can help to awaken feelings you have denied yourself. If you want to love God more then this book may also show you a way to a more pleasing and peaceful relationship with our Creator.

~The Rebecca Review

important topic of discussion
At first glance, Feel looks like every other up and coming post modern book on the Christian market. The orange cover with the scrawly stylized art; the unusual font and line spacing and interactive pages complete with quotes from the comments section of the blog. Even the theme of the book seems to scream "warning! liberal post modern ahead!" (which for me is more of a welcome than a warning but you get the picture).

Which is why I was very confused when I saw the host of evangelical and reformed names recommending the book. A guy who positively quotes Piper is writing about reclaiming our feelings? Surely you jest.

Which is exactly Elliott's point - for too long in Christianity, emotions have been branded as the things that draw good Christians away from solid Biblical holiness. Emotions lead us astray, they are tools of the enemy, nurturing emotions is what ooey-gooey shady liberals do.

Read the rest here
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My Reading of Feel
A few weeks ago I finished a book titled Feel by Matthew Elliott. Essentially the book is about debunking the myth that psychologists and now churches have put out that we need to follow reason or logic and not our emotions or feelings. The book was challenging for me. My entire life I had always thought back on my big mistakes as ones driven by emotions rather than a logical thought process. I have no doubt most of you have done the same. We think that it is because of our "heat in the moment" emotions that we make mistakes. Elliott has changed my thinking.

If I were to try and summarize how Elliott goes about changing my thinking I am sure I would do a poor job. Elliott uses scientific data, psychological studies, and Biblical studies on how emotions are viewed in the Bible. These things were more than convincing to me that I am ruining my relationship with Christ by living strictly through reason and logic. I am a very organizational person, I do not color outside of the lines. But I think I've been missing God's ability to speak to me through my emotions.

One interesting thing to note about the book is that it tries to incorporate blogging. At the end of each chapter their a section of personal responses and then include a link of where to join in the conversation. Often we think of blogging and books as two very separate things, but this book is trying to bridge the gap. I'm not sure if it liked it or not. Often, I found myself just skipping to the next chapter.

Overall: Great book, recommend it to anyone who feels like they are living an emotionless life.

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