Faith vs. Feelings
Faith and belief are two words that have been in my spirit over the past few days as I’ve been studying the book of John. This stirring in my spirit was prompted by John 14:11-14 which says:
“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
I began to consider my own belief and faith. Sometimes I deal with doubt. Many Christians do or have at some point in their walk with God. But I have learned that faith is not a feeling. But just being obedient to what God is telling me to do is when faith comes into play. The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is disobedience.
In Hebrews 11, which is considered the Hall of Fame of Faith, we read about many Bible heroes and how they responded in faith. Here are a few:
Abel: offered a pleasing sacrifice to God.
Enoch: lived so righteously that he didn’t experience death.
Noah: built the ark due to his godly and reverent fear.
Abraham: obeyed and set out for the place God called him, even though he did not know exactly where he was going. He also offered his only son Isaac to God, remembering God’s promise and how He can raise anyone from the dead.
Sarah: considered God faithful and was able to conceive in her old (and way beyond childbearing) age. Consider means to think carefully; she didn’t let her feelings affect her faith.
Moses: chose to suffer with his people rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. By faith, he was looking ahead to the promised reward.
There were many stories of faith like the above. Faith requires action, which is essentially obedience. You cannot wait for your feelings to line up with what you know to be true. You have to do whatever God is calling you to do by faith, and eventually, your feelings will catch up.
The world lives by their feelings. They make decisions based on how they feel at the moment. The world has an unnatural preoccupation with feelings. But as Christians, we need to trust what we know to be true: God’s word and His promises. Even if we don’t receive an earthly reward, we will undoubtedly receive a heavenly one. Let us learn to look expectantly towards things of eternal value and reward. If we do, we are guaranteed to receive a reward from our Father!