FREE RESOURCE · SOUL FORMATION TOOLThe Biblical Emotions Wheel
The core emotional language of Scripture
Scripture never asks you to go quiet about what you feel.
The psalmists named grief and joy in the same breath. Jesus told His friends His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow, and then He prayed. This wheel distills the Bible's emotional vocabulary into eight core emotions: joy, love, peace, awe, sorrow, anger, shame, and longing. Each one opens into the more precise states beneath it. Select any emotion to see its Hebrew and Greek roots, why Scripture treats it as central, and where it appears in the text.
Use it when you can feel something but can't yet name it. A feeling that is named and brought to God is already moving in a different direction than one that has been pressed down and left unacknowledged.
core emotions Scripture names most
08
16
secondary emotional states
precise words for what is present
48
HEBREW AND GREEK ROOTS · SCRIPTURE FOR EVERY CORE EMOTION · ESVTHE WHEELFind the word for what is present
The inner ring holds the eight core emotions. Each opens outward into more precise states. Select any part of the wheel, or start with one of the emotions below.
HOW TO USE ITNaming is the beginning, not the end
01
Start where you are
If all you know is that something feels heavy or bright, begin at the center and move outward until a word fits. If a specific word comes to mind, find it on the outer ring and trace it back to its root.
02
Read what Scripture says
Every emotion on the wheel has a history in the text. Read its roots and passages slowly. You are not the first person to feel this before God, and Scripture has language for it.
03
Bring it to God
Pray the word you found, plainly and without dressing it up. The psalmists did not tidy their emotions before bringing them to God. You don't need to either.
GO DEEPERFrom naming to formation
The wheel is a starting place for naming what is present. The Soul Formation Pathway is where that naming becomes formation: twenty-eight days of structured work that move you from noticing what you feel, to understanding where it comes from, to bringing it before God with honesty and precision. If the wheel helps you find the word, the Pathway helps you know what to do with it.
28 DAYS · SELF-GUIDED
SOUL DIMENSION OF THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT MODEL™If what you are naming feels heavier than you can carry alone, please talk with a pastor or a Christian counselor. AACC, CCEF, and Focus on the Family can help you find one.
Part of the Soul dimension of the Greatest Commandment Model™, The Luke 10:28 Project. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.