Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
1 John 3:20
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Many times we equate God with a feeling, and we allow our emotion and how we feel to dictate our faith. We get the sense that if we do not ‘feel’ God then He must not be there. But that is not true, God is not a feeling nor is He run by our emotions. We don’t feel an engine in a car but we know it’s there or we wouldn’t go anywhere. It’s the same thing with God, we may not feel Him here but we should know He is always there. Without Him, we would not go anywhere. We would not wake up in the morning. That’s called faith, knowing that God is there even when we don’t feel Him. Too often we depend on our feelings rather than lean on our faith in God. With that being said, we begin to chase a feeling rather than chase God, we are seeking what it feels like to know God rather than knowing God Himself. We will miss Him searching for a feeling when He’s right there with us.
We often think that we have to feel a certain way to be saved. We have to “feel saved” or it’s not real.
Romans 10:9
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.
Nowhere in this scripture does is says we will feel saved it says “You will be saved.” We are not saved because we feel saved, we are saved because we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe that God raised Him from the dead. We declare that He is Lord. Putting feelings aside, whether we feel it or not Jesus is Lord and He is alive, God did raise Him from the dead three days after He died on the cross at Calvary. Nothing is going to change that. If that is true, why do we base our salvation on how we feel? We, again, are searching for something that we cannot find because it is not about how we feel it is what we believe. We cannot let our hearts or minds deceive us. Just because we are feeling a certain way does not mean we are not saved, it means we are human. We are an emotional people. Imagine if every time our parents got angry at us, they told us we weren't their kid anymore, but when that anger ceased they claimed us as their child again. It does not work that way, angry or not our parents cannot get rid of us. No matter how angry or happy they are with us we will always be their child. Take that and apply to what we are talking about, not matter how we feel if we still believe that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead than we are saved.
Sometimes following our heart is not the answer, our hearts can deceive us. As I said before, we are a bunch of emotional people, and sometimes that leads us to jump to conclusions very quick. Sometimes our hearts tell us one thing but our mind tells us another, this is why God is not moved by our emotions because they change so fluently. Sometimes when it comes to our faith we have to ignore our feelings and not allow them to dictate what we believe to be true about God.
Reflection
- Do you agree that we as humans are very emotional?
- Have you allowed your feelings to dictate your faith?
- Based on the above question, do you allow your feelings to dictate your faith?
Prayer Time
Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Ask God to help you depend on your faith in Him rather than how you feel or how you think you should feel.
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