Chasing The Feeling: Your Emotional Reactions Are Running Your Life

How would you define an emotional reaction?

Take a second with that, because I think many may not have actually stopped to examine what’s driving us emotionally, where those reactions come from, and more importantly, where they’re taking us.

I came across a song on social media recently, really liked it, looked it up on Apple Music, moved it to my music system, and listened to it in the shower.

It dawned on me that I was moved by it. I did a little research on the artist, turns out he’s not real.

Completely AI. He has a brand, a look, a persona, and he is incredibly popular, but doesn’t exist. And I had a genuine emotional reaction to something that was entirely manufactured.

It kind of struck me a bit deeper. On that same day I was in a counseling session listening to someone describe something remarkably similar, not AI music, but the emotional reaction they get from their addiction.

The pull, the feeling that something is filling them up, and then the shame. They don’t l Ike themselves, yet they return to chase that feeling again. And I thought, those two things are not as different as they seem.

Here’s the truth I think many may not like to face; every one of us is wired to respond emotionally to our environment, and that’s not a flaw, that’s by design. God created us as emotional beings.

But there is a world of difference between having emotions and being governed by them.

I was attracted to that song not because it was true, not because it was real, not because it was pointing me toward anything meaningful. I was attracted to it because of how it made me feel.

And my feelings didn’t stop to ask whether the source was authentic. They just said, more of that, please.

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12 NCV)

Your and my instincts can be wrong. What feels right can lead somewhere very dark and very wrong.

And if we’re honest, most of us are primarily attracted or repelled by things based on how they affect us emotionally. That’s the engine running underneath most of our decisions.

Think about the relationships you invest in. The content you consume. Even the way you serve or give, trace it back honestly, and how much of it is really about the feeling you get in return?

Even people who seem genuinely accommodating are often, if they’re really honest, serving in a way that produces admiration. Give love to get love. Serve to feel significant.

That is not transformation. That’s kind of an emotional transaction, trading feelings for feelings.

The Apostle Paul described this condition with great accuracy: “People will be lovers of themselves… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:2,4 NCV)

Not haters of God, necessarily. Just more interested in the feeling than in Him.

We also live in a world now specifically engineered to exploit exactly how we’re wired. Social media algorithms. AI-generated content. Entertainment designed not to inform or inspire, but to stimulate and addict.

To get a reaction. To keep you returning. The AI artist I found wasn’t trying to tell me the truth. He was optimized to produce a feeling. And maybe the thing you are into is doing the same thing.

And here’s the deal. It worked on me, a man who reads the Bible a lot, for decades. I counsel against this stuff. So what chance does someone with no spiritual foundation have when that same machinery is pointed directly at them?

Jesus said of the enemy: “He speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44 NCV)

The enemy is not disorganized. He is a manufacturer of false feeling, creating experiences that mimic truth, connection, and satisfaction. And they are empty every single time.

This is happening with Near Death Experiences, Social Media, Algorithms enticing you, and yes - even your or my selfish and sinful desires. What thing are you into that maybe you shouldn’t be into?

Here’s an analogy Imagine you’re starving and someone hands you a photograph of a meal. Beautifully presented, and you feel something. Anticipation. Comfort. But you cannot eat a photograph.

Manufactured stimulation, the emotional hit of an addiction, AI-generated feeling, these are photographs of a meal. They trigger the sensation of nourishment, but nothing real is transferred.

Nothing authentic is actually received when we go for the alternative or the counterfeit.

And the danger is this: if you get good enough at consuming photographs, you stop recognizing real hunger. You stop reaching for real food because the photograph is easier, faster, and demands nothing from you.

I think Christ communicated it when He said: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35 NCV)

But for many, we just don’t buy it.

This is also why escape is so dangerous. When we chase an emotional reaction to avoid pain, to numb something, to fill something, to feel something other than what’s actually true about our lives, we are not healing, growing and seeing “real life”.

Instead, we are hiding. And whatever we hide from continues to grow in the dark.

Psalm 107 describes people who ended up exactly there: “They were hungry and thirsty, and they were discouraged. In their misery they cried out to the Lord, and he saved them from their troubles.” (Psalm 107:5-6 NCV)

The way out was not stronger willpower. It was honest desperation turned toward God. And as the Psalmist said, “and He saved them from their troubles.”

So what does God actually invite you and I into?

Not suppression. Not pretending emotions don’t exist. He is inviting us to submit our emotional lives to Him. To slow down long enough to ask, before I respond to this feeling, before I return to this thing, is this leading me toward truth or away from it?

Is this nourishing me or is this just a photograph? And with AI - is it even real? Who is the real you? You aren’t a song writer. You aren’t the beautiful person that porn connects with. You aren’t the strong person who’s falling for addiction. What are you and I lusting for?

Lust is not an asset, it’s a liability. It’s eroding and destroying you. The opposite of what Christ promised.

Romans 12:2 says it plainly: “Do not change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but be changed within by a new way of thinking.” (Romans 12:2 NCV)

The feelings follow the thinking. The thinking follows what we love. And what we love is revealed, not by what we say, but by what we chase.

So let me close with some honest questions:

What are you involved in right now that you know produces a high emotional response, but you also know it’s probably not good for you?

Maybe it’s destructive long term. Maybe you already know that. So then why are you still involved? We chase these emotional feelings and it’s not always good, and we know it.

So I’ll say what I believe needs to be said: confess it to God. Confess it to a trustworthy friend who can actually help you and hold you accountable. Not someone who will just validate the feeling, someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth and ride shotgun with you.

And then ask yourself the deeper question, maybe the most important question you could ask today: What do I really desire?

Something that feels good in the moment, or something that honors God, honors Christ, honors the Holy Spirit, and honors the people you truly love?

Maybe today is a good day to come clean with your own heart. To draw a line. Write the word start, and do your best, your honest best, to finish well.

And when you mess up, and you will, we all do, draw another line. Start again. Because here’s what I know: down the road, you may not be exactly where you want to be. But you won’t be where you were. And that is where you will find the true life Christ speaks of.

LORD, You made us to feel, and somewhere along the way we learned to chase the feeling instead of chasing You. We’ve consumed the fake and called it nourishment. We’ve mistaken stimulation for satisfaction. Forgive me, not just for what I chase, but for the belief underneath it, that You are not enough to fill what aches in me. If there is a person sitting with a private answer to those closing questions right now, in the shame, in the secrecy, in the cycle, please meet them right where they are. Let them feel You more powerfully than they have ever felt the thing that holds them. Give them the courage to draw a line today. To confess. To start. And when they stumble, give them the grace to draw another one. You really are the bread of life. Help me live like I believe it. IJNIP amen ♥️