Never Depend On Your Feelings

We are have feelings. We feel hunger, hot, cold, and even afraid. Feelings are a normal thing in a human being. God has given us feelings because He has feelings. If you read the Bible, we see that God has feelings. They may not be human feelings, but He does have them.

Feelings are a good thing yet, if we are not we are not careful, we can be to dependent on our feelings. Years ago in Bible college, I doubted my salvation because I did not feel saved. I went up to a pastor, who was a keynote speaker during our fall revival services, told him that I was not feeling saved. He looked at me and said, "You cannot depend on feelings for your salvation." I left that evening thinking he was right.

No where in the Bible do we see anything about us having feelings of being saved. Do not misunderstand me, there may times you feel on top of the world because God used you in something, but we should never rely on feelings. Going through chemotherapy, I can testify that your feelings will be out of whack. I remember R.C Sproul asking a Christian lady how she was doing as she was going through cancer treatments. Her answer was, "Its hard to be a Christian with your head in the toilet."

When it comes to salvation, we must take what God's Word says about our salvation. We trust in Christ for our salvation, not our feelings. There may be times you wake up in the morning praising God or times where you want to shoot the alarm clock.

We must also not trust our feelings when it comes to a worship service. I remember being in a worship service where I felt, what I thought was a cool draft. I thought it was the Holy Spirit. It was not. It was the air conditioning kicking on. God's presence is with us whether we feel him or not. Granted, God will use our feelings to discipline us if there is a sin that needs to be confessed and repented (2 Corinthians 7:10).

If our feelings are making us question our salvation, God's goodness, and/or His presence in our lives, the best place to go to is the Bible. God has assured us that he will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We are told in the 23rd Psalm, that when go through the darkest valley, He will be with us (Psalm 23:4). Our feelings will mislead us at times, but God's Word won't.