Often, we confuse faith with feelings. We mistakenly reduce our faith in God to our feelings. When we feel good and close to God, our faith is strong. And, when things are not going our way we may feel that God is distant, making us waver in our faith. Our feelings matter and they should be part of our relationship with God but faith in God should always prevail upon our feelings, not the other way around.
Our culture gives high priority to feelings, yet often our feelings can mislead us. Feelings are fleeting responses to people, things or situations. Feelings should be acknowledged, but they should not be the foundation of our faith. We are called to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And, yet, we so often choose to walk by our feelings.
When we are tempted to listen to our feelings and allow them to influence our faith we should stop and look to God’s Word and compare what we are feeling to what Scripture says.
Do our feelings line up? Great! Do they contradict God’s Word? Not so great. Remember, feelings are not the assurance of things hoped for nor are they the conviction of things unseen. Faith is (Hebrews 11:1).
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5
