Our powerful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, said in John 8:32(NLT), “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Many treat Jesus’ words like they only apply to “spiritual” things, while their emotions, wounds, and private struggles are handled some other way. But that’s not truth—that’s survival thinking. And survival thinking keeps you bound. There is only one truth, and it doesn’t bend itself around our pain or adjust to what feels comfortable. It must be applied everywhere—especially in the places we hurt the most. And where truth is not applied, freedom will not exist. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve believed, how much Scripture you know, or how strong you appear—if truth isn’t working in your emotional life, something is still out of alignment.
It wasn’t that long ago that many believed if you truly followed the Lord Jesus Christ, you had no business being sad or depressed. The expectation was clear—keep a smile on your face, stay strong, and never let anyone see you struggle. As if faith made you immune to hard days. But that kind of thinking didn’t produce freedom—it produced hiding. It taught believers to deny their pain instead of deal with it.
So many women suffered in silence, going deeper into isolation because they felt ashamed of what they were feeling and dealing with. They carried sadness they couldn’t name out loud, convinced that no one would understand—or worse, that they would be judged for it. But emotional pain doesn’t stay buried. It doesn’t disappear just because it’s ignored. It waits. And eventually, it surfaces—through our reactions, our relationships, and our choices. And when it does, we’re often caught off guard by our own behavior and the damage that unresolved pain leaves behind.
Being a born-again Christian doesn’t exempt us from emotional pain—but it does require that we understand and use what God has given us to take authority over it. Many want the comfort of salvation without the responsibility of transformation. But God didn’t just save us so we could endure life—He saved us so we could live in victory, even in our emotional struggles.
In Romans 10:9–10 (NIV), God makes it plain: “9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” In this passage, our loving and powerful Heavenly Father gives us His very plain and clear directive, and it will change our lives for all eternity. He tells us how we are made new. Following Romans 10:9-10 is how we become His children and receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
But we cannot stop there. The same heart that believes and the same mouth that confesses must also be trained to align with God’s truth daily. Salvation is the beginning—but learning to walk in truth, especially in our emotional lives, is where many either grow or remain bound.
Emotional struggles don’t just come out of nowhere. They are usually being fed by the thoughts we’ve been entertaining and the beliefs we’ve allowed to take root. Not every thought that crosses your mind is truth, and not every feeling deserves your agreement. God tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NLT) that we are to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” That means we don’t just sit there and let thoughts tell us we’re not enough, unloved, rejected, or broken. We confront them. We hold them up against what God has already said in His Word. And if they don’t line up, we don’t make room for them or nurture those thoughts—we reject them. We let them go. Because the truth is, a lot of emotional bondage isn’t because freedom isn’t available… it’s because, without realizing it, we’ve been agreeing with the very thoughts that keep us bound.
But taking authority doesn’t stop at saying no to the wrong thoughts—it also means saying yes to the right ones. Romans 12:2 (NLT) reminds us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Transformation doesn’t happen automatically. It happens when we intentionally bring our thinking into alignment with God’s Word, again and again, until it starts to feel natural. This is how shame loses its grip. This is how emotional wounds begin to heal. You are not called to pretend you’re okay—you are called to bring every part of you into agreement with God’s truth. And when you do, freedom stops being something you hope for and becomes something you walk in daily. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
“Don’t Be Ashamed of Emotional Struggles”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2026. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

