A LOT of us are tempted to begin sentences like this when we’re discussing things like: what’s right and wrong; what they believe or don’t believe; a sermon they heard somewhere. I don’t won’t to discount our feelings here. In fact, God gave us emotions. He loves to work in and through our emotions. A great example of this is the radical response we’ve seen to the Haiti crisis. People have been moved with compassion and that has led to very positive acts on our part!
However, we have to be very careful NOT to base our beliefs or decisions entirely on our emotions or our feelings! Look what God says about our feelings:
“The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NLT).
God says several things about our feelings here:
- Our feelings can deceive us (“The human heart is most deceitful …”).
Often times, we don’t even KNOW our own motives behind why we do what we do. Our hearts are “deceptive”. They can deceive us. We often do the RIGHT things with the wrong motives. Just another example of the fact that we can’t allow our FEELINGS to be the gauge of or lives.
- Our feelings often run contrary to what God says (“and desperately wicked.”).
The Bible says we’re all sinners. We’re all naturally wicked. Ever seen two preschoolers play together? Really. Do WE want to the judge of right and wrong? Do you really thing WE/I have the angle on everything? Do we really want there to be NO absolute right and wrong? No standard? Is good and evil determined solely upon what everyone thinks is good and evil? Uh…no. There has to be a standard and it should NOT be what WE or anyone else THINKS. There HAS to be an absolute standard of what’s right and wrong! The Truth of God’s Word!
- Our feelings can mislead us (“Who really knows how bad it is?”).
Remember the time you “fell in love” with that loser? That psychopath? Yeah, our feelings can mislead us. Blind us. Sometimes even what we THINK TO BE RIGHT at the time, turns out to be wrong. We’ve all been there! It may SEEM right at the time, but feelings can mislead us. So we always need to FILTER our feelings through the TRUTH of God’s Word! “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 16:25 (NIV)
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT WE THINK. WHAT MATTERS IS WHAT HE SAYS.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE SAYS? ARE YOU A STUDENT OF GOD’S WORD? ARE YOU WILLING TO DIG, SEARCH,AND LEARN HOW TO STUDY GOD’S WORD AND APPLY HIS TRUTH OVER YOUR LIFE?
ARE YOU WILLING TO PLACE YOUR FAITH IN HIS TRUTH, AND NOT YOUR FEELINGS TODAY?
Posted by: |