Feelings
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· 245 viewsWhat is your faith constructed on? Is it built on the word of God, or is it based on the faith you have constructed for yourself?
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Faith and Feelings
Faith and Feelings
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Biblical faith is not a blind faith, but is one based on evidence.
Some would build their faith, not on the word of God, but on their feelings of what is right. Instead of being created by God in His image, they try to create God in their own image. “I believe in a God who would do this or who would not do that.”
The faith that is constructed based on feelings of who God is or who you would like God to be, is not necessarily based on Biblical evidence. It is rather, based on your feelings. Therefore, if you rely on your constructed faith to save you, you are placing your faith in your faith. The faith is not placed in God and His word, but is rather based on your faith which you have constructed, based on your feelings.
We may have feelings, but if those feelings are based in the world and not in God’s word, they are not good feelings to build your life on.
Galatians 5:24
Romans 1:26-27
Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
People were following their feelings, but God called their feelings “vile” and an “error.” Their feelings were the wrong feelings to follow.
The Conscience
The Conscience
The conscience is part of our brain that makes us feel bad if something is wrong and feel good when things are okay.
The conscience, however, can be trained, depending on your actions. Do bad actions long enough and your conscience may not bother you anymore.
1 Timothy 4:1-3
Acts 22:3-8
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
Saul persecuted Jesus and thought he was doing right.
I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.
But Jesus clearly told him he was doing wrong.
And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.
And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
Saul’s feelings were that Christians should be imprisoned and Jesus should be persecuted. But those feelings were wrong. Why? They were not based on the truth of God’s word.
Saul may have been sincere, but if he was, he was sincerely wrong.
Once Saul realized He was wrong, he repented and preached Christ.
Acts 9:20
And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
Why did Saul’s conscience not bother him about persecuting God? Because he thought he was doing right. Your conscience does not bother you when you think you are doing right, even when you are doing wrong.
Notice what Paul would write later about his conscience.
2 Timothy 1:3
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
He was doing the exact opposite of what he was doing before and yet now his conscience was fine.
We Answer to God
We Answer to God
The fact is that our feelings and our words will not be what judges us in the last day. Instead, we will stand before God and answer to what Jesus has said.
John 12:48
He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Having feelings is fine and having a conscience is fine but they both need to be centered upon and founded upon what God says. God is the Creator of the world and is the source of goodness. When something is good, it is because God approves of it. When something is evil, it is because God does not approve of it.
By conforming our lives to what God wants, we can have a good conscience, too.
1 Peter 3:16
But do so with courtesy and respect, having a good conscience, so that in the things in which you are slandered, the ones who malign your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.
Notice that God states you can have a good conscience because of your “good conversation in Christ.”
The conscience we are supposed to have and the feelings we are to have are to be good, but they are to be good because we are doing what God wants.
1 Peter 3:21
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
And also, corresponding to this, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
If we appeal to God for a good conscience, is He not the judge? If He is the judge, then why would I build my life on my own feelings? If I only need to please myself, then why would I appeal to God for a good conscience? If I appeal to God for a good conscience, then would it not make sense that I have done what pleases Him?
If you appeal to a referee in a game, the referee may agree with you if your appeal is based on the rule book. If you appeal to God, our judge, should not that appeal be based on His rule book, the Bible?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Our faith should be based on the Word of God, the Bible, not our own feelings and our own faith.
Romans 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Our conscience can help tell us when we are doing wrong, but only if we train it properly, again using God’s Word, the Bible.
In the end, we will answer to God for what we have done, not according to my feelings and faith, but according to His words.
Which are you following today, a faith constructed on your feelings, or God’s Word?