Choosing Steadfast Faith Over Shifting Feelings
The most common misconception about faith is that it is based on feeling. The truth is that faith is a choice. God reveals His love to you, and you become aware that you can’t deny His existence. You can’t see Him physically or prove Him scientifically, but deep down, you know He’s real. But you must make the choice to believe He is Lord. If you’re someone who must have proof and loves logic, you will be tempted with thoughts and feelings that go against the belief that God is real and that He is Lord. You must make the choice to resist the doubting thoughts.
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When you first gave your life to Jesus, you probably had strong feelings of faith. But that doesn’t mean feelings always have to be there. Real faith endures. Real faith is making the choice to submit your thoughts and feelings to the covenant you made with God the day you decided to follow Him. Real faith is choosing to believe the Word of God even when your feelings don’t align with His truth. Faith is about obedience—obedience in taking God’s Word as truth.
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The Scripture doesn’t say “faith without feelings” is dead. It says “faith without works” is dead (James 2:26). Faith is an action, a choice to take what God says in His Word as truth. Faith is being like a child who simply takes whatever their parent says as truth. The child needs no evidence. The child doesn’t take time to question what the parent says. The child doesn’t believe only if their feelings match up with their belief. The child just believes.
One of the ways to “become like little children” (Matt. 18:3) is to have childlike faith. In the Gospels, when Jesus says things such as, “Your faith has made you well” (Matt. 9:22), this is the faith He means. In speaking to Jairus after his daughter had died (Mark 5:21-43), Jesus revealed a key that would release the miracle of Resurrection: just believe. Many times after Jesus healed or delivered a person, He shared with them why this miracle took place: because they believed!
God measures faith by your words and actions, not your feelings. With this revelation, nothing can stop you from having immense faith. Without this revelation, you would always have a wishy-washy, up-and-down faith; on the mountaintops, you would have faith, but in the valleys, you would doubt.
Our spiritual battle is centered mostly in the mind, where our thoughts and feelings are. If you’ve ever had an unwelcome thought intrude into your mind, that was not your thought. It was the devil’s ammunition. He was hoping to trick you into thinking it was your own original thought and therefore you would believe the thought was the truth. From there you would then act out that truth and live in it. This is the enemy’s main strategy against every person. By getting you to believe his lies, he’s granted authority by you and therefore can dictate your life.
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