Feelings – The Disciple-Making Lifestyle

How do our feelings relate to the Christian life? Our relationship with God is securely anchored in His unchanging character and dependable holiness. However, our ever-changing emotions react to a wide range of unpredictable circumstances which typically vacillate. Our feelings normally respond to our immediate needs.

Physical feelings are predictably fickle! Fortunately, however, they do not impact the validity of our Christian experience. They simply validate the reality of our stress, changing sleep patterns, grief, health, and our times of gratitude and excitement. Even the atmosphere around us and the chemicals produced by our own bodies can make us feel differently. In contrast, God never changes. His Word is life’s constant! It remains unaltered by history, current events, new ideas, or human emotions. In Scripture, the Lord declares, “For I, the Lord, do not change…” (Malachi 3:6a)

Like God, eternal Truth remains dependably holy and unchanging. The Lord Jesus helped us understand the nature of ultimate Truth when He explained, “I am … the Truth…” The Bible also affirms that He remains “… the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) We cannot know what God personally feels, but the fact of His love is undeniable! Apart from that reality, nothing else in the sphere of human knowledge possesses any lasting meaning.

Scripture never says to expect, nor does it promise, that we will have any particular set of emotions. However, it does promise that God is faithful and that He truly cares about us (see 1 Peter 5:7). Being our Creator, the Lord Jesus fully understands our personal needs and feelings. This is part of why He left heaven to help us. He said, “I have come to seek and save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

The Bible warns us saying, “Do not love the world or anything in the world…” (1 John 2:15) We are to love God with all our heart while being thankful for the things which He has made. Time teaches us that our human emotions may vary but – God’s love for us never changes!

Our feelings are impacted by grief and much of that grief is caused by unconfessed sin. Our disobedience quenches the work of the Holy Spirit, so we deeply regret our times of spiritual mediocrity. Through personal neglect or indifference, we can temporally lose the benefit of having healthy spiritual hunger. However, through our sincere rededication, that spiritual hunger can be restored. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)