Are Feelings Deceptive?
I was raised in a church culture where “feelings” were believed to be the indicator of a person’s heart. One guest speaker’s fundamental motivation was to incite people to come to an altar and cry profusely. Feelings motivated other speakers just to get a large number of people to come forward at the end of her/his speaking and go through the motions of “praying the sinner’s prayer.” They would then boast of the number saved in the last service or series of services. One song sung a lot was “O Lord, send the power just now,” which usually was interpreted as experiencing a special feeling. What confused me the most is how few of those who cried profusely or came forward to be ‘saved’ or experienced some form of God’s power actually reflected a changed lifestyle or value system, that of pursuing God’s righteousness instead of their old unrighteous ways of life.
Please do not misunderstand me. I value my feelings and those of others. God gave us feelings to express our deeper emotions. But feelings, by themselves, are far less stable than the weather in Nebraska. A person can swing from ecstasy to despair and back again, all regarding the same issue, several times in a day—maybe in an hour. I used to think I encountered God’s Spirit most when I cried, but I came to realize that wasn’t true at all! Jesus heard His Father’s voice many times but rarely did he cry in those moments.
The Jews often confused their feelings with authentic faith in God and love for Him. They tore their clothes as an outward expression of sudden grief, but that display of feeling was not equal to true repentance or a broken heart. The prophet Joel said, the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the LORD your God… (Joel 2:12-13a, NLT2). You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God (Psalm 51:16-17, NLT2) to be distressed in a godly way causes people to change the way they think and act and leads them to be saved. No one can regret that. But the distress that the world causes brings only death (2 Corinthians 7:10, GW).
My outward religious expressions are fruitless unless they flow out of my inward heart, where the very fiber of who I am is transformed. Each of us deeply desires to be an authentic apprentice of Jesus. However, each of us sin more than we would like. It is what we do AFTER we sin that defines the status of our apprenticeship to Jesus. The more we humbly confess our sin to God, in contrast to glibly saying, “God will forgive me” and move on, reveals our proximity to Christ. The more I imitate Jesus, the more others will see His character and value system in me. However, it requires a lot of saying ‘No’ to our feelings in order for His character to grow deeper into our hearts. Feelings alone can deceive us to think we are better or worse than we really are.
The Bible never teaches us to trust or follow our feelings in any area of our lives. That is not His purpose for giving us the capacity of feeling. He gave us His truth to follow. He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what GOD is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously (Micah 6:8, MSG). Paul wrote, I discipline my body (driven by feelings) like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:27, NLT2).