Emotions > Intellect?

Last night I had a very, very important realization: Most of what troubles me in my faith is my dependence on feelings.

God feels far away.

I don't feel forgiven.

It feels like God is disappointed in me right now.

It doesn't feel like God is leading me to do that, but I don't know why.

But what happens when your spiritual life is dominated by your emotions? Doesn't emotion have a place in our spiritual walk? Yes, it does. But I realized last night that emotion's place in my spiritual walk had usurped the highest authority in my walk with Christ; His Word, and what it tells me is true about Him.

God told me He would never leave or forsake me? (Deut. 31:6) God told me that He casts my sin as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more? (Psalm 103:12) God told me that He loves me? (John 3:16) God told me what He requires of me? (Micah 6:8) Doesn't matter; my feelings say otherwise.

However, I listened to a Breakaway podcast yesterday entitled "Robe Your Mind for Action," and the guest speaker, Jennifer Wilkin, made an excellent point about how we usually approach Scripture with self-application in mind. We read it to "get something out of it," when what we really need to do is make sure we understand that we're learning about our God first, then we can make personal applications based upon that knowledge.

She also made an excellent point about reading Scripture to gain wisdom from knowledge. Knowledge of our God and His statutes enables us to make wise decisions about how we should engage our world, use our resources, etc. This morning I was debating whether I should try out a new church because I barely slept last night, but what if I was supposed to go? Oh Father, what do I do? Would You please guide me and tell me what I should do?

Almost immediately an answer came back: "What do you know about how I feel regarding church?"

He was inviting me to use my intellect, not my feelings. If He's already told me what He thinks about church (or to be more specific, about being in a community of Christians), why was I begging Him for an answer? I don't need a specific answer for for every situation I have for the rest of my life. What. Does. He. Say?

I don't think anything catastrophic would've happened if I had missed church today. But as I sat there and reasoned in my half-asleep stupor, I realized we are encouraged to be in community with other believers (Heb. 10:25, 1 Thess. 5:11), and when I go to church I enjoy it and feel better for the rest of the week. So using my knowledge of Scripture and God-given wisdom, I decided to go, and I'm glad I did.

Instead of believing every new "feeling" that comes into my spiritual life, I'm going to cling to what I know Jesus, who is "the same yesterday and today and forever," (Heb. 13:8) has said is true through His Father's Holy Word, and act on and believe in those things. Not that emotions have no place in the Christian's life, but when emotions > intellect, we will be as unstable and uncertain as ships tossed at sea.

"Out of all the voices calling out to me,
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth."
- Casting Crowns, "Voice of Truth"