What to Do When You Feel Emotionally Stuck

When you are emotionally stuck, it can feel like you are a hamster running on a wheel going nowhere. Feeling emotionally stuck leads to negative mindsets that only take you further down a path of destruction. 

Get teaching HERE on how to get emotionally unstuck.

There are 4 keys to getting emotionally unstuck… 

• Understanding emotional intelligence and self-awareness
• Living a lifestyle of repentance
• Exercising Spirit-led self-control 
• Understanding that change is a process

We are going to look at each of these 4 key factors that can move you into new levels of faith and prepare you for a blessing of promotion. 

But let’s first seek to understand the spiritual atmosphere that surrounds the dilemma of feeling emotionally stuck. 

When you understand the principalities that seek to destroy the promotion of new levels of faith, you will know how to protect your inheritance.

The Lord has a blessing waiting for you. He is knocking at the door. Your responsibility is to use wisdom and discernment when the enemy pushes your emotional buttons so that you will hear the knock and open the door.

The Enemy is Pushing Your Emotional Buttons

The enemy will use the weaknesses in your mind, will, and emotions to provoke an emotional reaction. These reactions, dare we say, never operate according to the Spirit. 

He uses weaknesses such as…

• Doubt
• Pride
• Fear
• Anger

However, when you can get into a quiet, still place to hear from the Lord, your reactions turn into a Spirit-led response. You start to become emotionally unstuck. 

How Do You Slow Down and Get Emotionally Unstuck?

Our fast-paced world is another place the enemy uses to push your buttons. Everything around us says move faster and react quicker. Therefore, you must know how to respond to the emotionally charged, fast-paced world without creating additional problems. 

Decide today…

“I am not going to allow these changes and the world around me to upset me emotionally.”

It sounds easy, but it takes emotional intelligence, a lifestyle of repentance, Spirit-led self-control, and an understanding that change is a process. 

The 4 Keys | Study These When You Feel Emotionally Stuck

1. Understanding Emotional Intelligence Helps You Get Emotionally Unstuck

Emotional intelligence is self-awareness about the moods you carry. Those moods will transfer to other people. If you are a parent or have been around children, you understand this well. Children tend to mimic the moods of those they are around. 

The same principle applies to work, family, ministry, church, and organizations. When we are hot-headed, we can expect that mood to spill over to others. We will reap what we sow. 

The moods you carry around will establish your reputation. They will determine how you deal with stressful situations and challenging people.

How you manage your emotions will determine your personal and professional success. Therefore, being aware of your moods will reveal the emotional buttons that the enemy will try to push. 

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.”—Proverbs 15:1-2

2. Living a Lifestyle of Repentance is the Best Medicine for Emotional Reactions

Experiencing godly sorrow and adopting a repentant lifestyle helps you get emotionally unstuck. If emotional reactions cause emotional pain, then repentance is the necessary medicine that will realign your heart with God’s. 

The sooner you come before God and repent for following the flesh rather than the Spirit, the sooner you will find peace. Repentance invites the Holy Spirit to move you out of feeling emotionally stuck and into a place of joy and peace. 

Unfortunately, many people hesitate to go to God, but the question is, what are they waiting for? The enemy will only cause the water to boil higher the longer you hold off coming before the Lord. 

This leads to an eruption and causes destruction, which is precisely what the enemy wants. Remember, he wants to kill, steal, and destroy the peace in your mind, relationships, and circumstances. 

We are designed to feel remorse over sin. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit, and, being made in God’s image, we too should be grieved. This type of godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to victory. 

The key to getting emotionally unstuck is to decide to have a lifestyle of repentance.

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”—2 Corinthians 7:10

3. Exercising Spirit-led Self-control When You Feel Emotionally Stuck

We know that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). When we walk by the Spirit, we are filled with the love of God. He leads us into righteousness, never into sin. 

Our emotions about situations can lie to us, leading us to adopt a bad attitude. We might say or do the right things, but we may have a motive behind it that is not from the Spirit. 

When you walk by the Spirit, that is having a heart motive behind our actions that align with God’s, then you won’t be subject to the law. It is the sin that is subject to the law. Therefore, when your heart is aligned with God’s in the Spirit, He will never lead you into sin. 

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”—Galatians 5:16-18 (emphasis added)

Walking by the Spirit is a choice. The Holy Spirit will only lead you in the ways of righteousness that line up with scripture. The works of the flesh are emotionally driven. 

Ask God to reveal to you the issue behind being emotionally stuck (James 1:5). Then repent of it so that it will not continue a path of destruction through your family line. 

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”—Galatians 5:19-21

4. Understanding that Change is a Process 

Through this process of healing, you will make mistakes. You will react emotionally. The key is not to criticize yourself. Move into a place of repentance and don’t listen to the condemning voices. 

You may have overcome the issue last week, but this is a new week. The enemy will bring it to a new intensity level, but this is because he knows there is a new level of faith for you beyond it. 

The reality is we will all continue to go through the process of transformation until we go home to be with Jesus. Give yourself some grace; God has. 

The Lord knows the hurt, pain, and struggle you are going through. He is not going to abandon you. 

God tells us…

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”—Isaiah 43:18-19

He is doing a new thing in you. He is making a river through the desert, but it’s a process. 

Quick Action Steps When You Feel Emotionally Stuck

Now that you’ve read these 4 keys to getting emotionally unstuck, decide to take action. 

Pray

• Take a moment to pray. Thank God for walking with you through the wilderness and creating a river in the desert. 

Journal

• Write down the emotions that seem to drive your reactions. Identify the lies the enemy uses against you during these moments.

Repent 

• Go to God and ask Him what is at the root of these emotions. Where are they from in your family line? Repent of the lies you’ve believed and reacted to. 

Pray

• Ask for renewed strength through this process. 

In Summary… Crucify the Flesh to Walk Free 

Decide to crucify the flesh. Many of us want to keep our old ways of dealing with emotions in a box. We ask ourselves, “How much can I get away with and still walk in the Spirit?” 

Whether we know it or not, we contemplate pulling out the box and resorting to the flesh when it feels like walking with the Spirit isn’t helping us get emotionally unstuck. This gives the devil a foothold in your life. He uses this box to keep us emotionally stuck. 

The best way to protect what is written for you in Heaven is to crucify the flesh. Decide today to do something different. And tomorrow, make the decision again. Keep pressing forward and calling on the Lord. He is shaping your character to handle the promotion He has waiting for you. 

Click HERE to watch the message How Do I Get Emotionally Unstuck. Then share the message with a friend who needs set free!