By Bill Gaultiere © 2011

Negative emotions. We all have them. We all have struggled with how to deal with emotions like worry, anger, depression, shame, ambition, lust, and jealousy—even a psychologist like me who has devoted 24 years to helping people overcome emotional problems.

Of course, having an emotion isn’t a problem—it’s normal. But how do we respond to the emotion? That’s the issue. And “negative” emotions are those that damage people if they are internalized or if they are acted on against yourself or someone else. Many people we talk to, including ministry leaders, are controlled by negative emotions.

The Psalmist understands our struggles [...]

Continue reading Negative Emotions

By Bill Gaultiere © 2009, 2010

What do you do when you’ve been mistreated and God doesn’t seem to answer your prayers? How do you pray when God seems distant and unconcerned about your pain? We all go through these trials. They don’t mean that God is angry with us or that we’re not good Christians. It may be a dark night of the soul.

In dark night trials we tend to feel alone, but we’re not! The Psalmist understands and in Psalm 44 he shows us how to pray in the dark. Many of our Bible heroes went through these times, most notably Jesus in the [...]

Continue reading The Other Side of Deep Darkness

By Bill Gaultiere © 1992

I spent seven years in my own psychotherapy, getting help with anxiety and depression, learning how to express my feelings better and receive the soul care that I needed. I needed help to get free of my false self and come alive as my true self.

My therapist was “Christ’s Ambassador” to me (2 Corinthians 5:20) and God found me at the bottom of the old well and set me free to be me!

In 1992 I wrote about my personal struggle of going through therapy in my prayer poem: “Becoming ‘I’.” My experience was very much like David’s in Psalm 40:1-5:

“I waited patiently for the [...]

Continue reading Becoming “I”

I was driving on a long and lonely road to go backpacking with my son David in Mammoth two years ago. He was sleeping. It was quiet. And before me was a vast stretch of highway winding through the desert and heading into the sky.

I was alone with my Creator in the quiet…

Looking in my rear view mirror I saw that days have turned into weeks and months and years and decades. Time keeps slipping away. Opportunities and people come and go. Sometimes I succeed and other times I don’t. Sometimes people appreciate me and other times they don’t. One day I feel good about myself and [...]

Continue reading I Am Because You Are the I AM

You long to be pursued in love. So do I.

“How are you… really? What do you need? What are you hoping for? How can I pray for you?” When someone expresses genuine personal interest in you it is healing. When you open up to grace it is life-giving.

But somewhere along the line we all have felt rejected… devalued… unknown… lost…

And we have learned to deny our hurts… not have emotional needs… distract ourselves from our inner pain… isolate…

We must come to the point where we cry out to God with the Psalmist: “May my cry come before you, O Lord… May your hand be ready to [...]

Continue reading Good Shepherd is Looking for You!