God gave you feelings and you
should never be ashamed of them. They can alert you to danger and give you
insights into various situations.
God actually uses our feelings to
draw us closer to Him and highlights areas in our lives that need to be
submitted to His Holy Spirit. But feelings are subjective; you can’t always
trust them.
One counselor says: ‘When old feelings
creep back in we feel fearful, ashamed, hopeless, not good enough, unloved, victimized,
helpless and resentful… An event can trigger these reactions … ending a
relationship, stress, problems at work and at home, times of change or illness …
and sometimes these feelings return for no reason.’
So you must ‘test your feelings’,
otherwise you’ll end up living … ‘a life shaped by things and feelings instead
of by God’ (Colossians 3:5 TM).
It can be disastrous to act on
what you see, hear and feel. Instead of reacting to feelings, you must learn to
act on what God’s Word says. That’s the gold standard, and it never changes!
For instance, even if you feel like you can walk on water, you can only do it
if God has called you to step out of the boat.
Paul says, ‘…my prayer is that
you …abound …in knowledge and …insight… that you may be able to discern what is
best…’ (Philippians 1:9-10 NIV).
This is the bottom line: you are not defined by your feelings; you
are defined by what God says about you. You may feel worthless, but God
says, ‘…You are precious to Me … I love you’ (Isaiah 43:4 NLT). You may feel
like a failure but God says, ‘There is… no condemnation for those… in Christ
(Romans 8:1 NIV).
THE TRUTH MEDIA
...building the body of Christ