Regardless of how we feel, if we have faith in what God says and trust it, we will not fall, we will not fail. The just shall live by faith not by feelings.
As you walk with the Lord, and as the Lord has called you, He begins to enclose you more and more with Himself. And every degree of revelation that He makes to you of Himself thrills you, blesses you, humbles you, excites you, opens up to you the great wonders of the universe, the great wonders of “Why am I here? Where am I going? What purpose does my life have?” All of these wondrous questions, we begin to find solid answers and meaning, and if that doesn’t put a passion in your soul, if that doesn’t cause you to be excited about this thing… What else could we be excited about? My goodness, I used to be, in the times past, I used to be excited about baseball, or girls, or thousands of other things, and get all emotionally worked up about them. I can say with the song, “all that thrills my soul now is Jesus”
And maintaining this, maintaining your passion; I think we all pass through difficult periods, we all have testings and temptings, and in fact it’s necessary for us. It’s necessary–in fact, the further you grow in the Lord, the Lord will allow you very specific seasons when He withdraws His sensible presence; you may not feel very saved, you may not feel that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. You want to be. You may not feel very close to the Lord, in fact you may be really struggling hard, and overcome with a lot of dark thoughts, and discouraging feelings in your soul, and you don’t really feel up and very excited. And you wonder even if you’re going to make it. But even in this, the Lord, if He began a good work in you, is working, even in this. To train you, and teach you, and make you understand that this life is not primarily a life of feelings, it is not primarily a life of passion, it is a life of faith.
We must believe, we must trust. And sometimes, we have to take that Scripture that says that Christ may be rooted in our heart by faith. We have to sometimes take by faith that Christ is in our hearts. Sometimes we don’t feel that Christ is in our hearts, but we have to take it by faith because the Scripture says so and we know what we have believed. And that we would take the Word of God as true.
Again, we’re not just subject to feelings, our feeling vary, our feelings are subject to so many influences. Our gastrointestinal tract will impress our feelings at times; the Devil himself will impress our feelings; the very emotional crowd that we’re around will impress our feelings. And feelings sometimes can be the most unreliable of experiences. But we must trust the Word of God. And His word is always steadfast and true, and faithful. And regardless of how we feel, if we have faith in what God says and trust it, we will not fall, we will not fail. “The just shall live by faith” [Romans 1:17] Not by feelings.
