Have you ever felt like when going through life’s trials that you’ve been abandoned completely by God? Have you ever felt like there’s a huge wall erected between God and you in the context of Him not seem to be able to listen to your prayer requests? Have you ever felt like you’re struggling all alone in your current circumstances, regardless of how hard you’ve tried and prayed? Have you felt quite disappointed by God in the sense that He has let you down time after time?
Have you ever been frustrated with God or discouraged because of what He allows to happen or didn’t make happen? Have you ever felt like the only way of getting His attention to your problem is to keep telling Him the same thing over and over through prayer whenever you have the chance to do so since it seems like God doesn’t truly understand what you’re going through? How often things don’t come out as expected despite how much you’ve trusted God? Lastly, have you ever questioned whether God truly loves and cares about you as a result of your constant struggles?
I’m sure that you can relate to most of those questions above, perhaps all of them. One thing that needs to be really stressed on is that there’s a big distinction between what our human feelings would want us to believe and what the Word of God is intended to make us believe. With this in mind, our human feelings can be very misleading and disheartening.
Even though, we’re commanded by God to trust Him in everything (Proverbs 3:5-6); nevertheless, that’s not always the case at all, especially when things start taking a turn for the worse. As human beings, no matter how hard we may try to study the Word, to depend on it, to let it dominate our lives, no matter how strong our faith in God is, no matter how mature we are in Him; however, when serious troubles hit, our faith will be challenged as a result. In fact, our faith in God doesn’t eliminate doubt, worry, panic, and fear, but what it does is to empower us to overcome them.
Human Feelings And Reality
There’s a strong bond between reality and how we feel as human beings. Reality plays an overwhelming role in determining our reaction to whatever problems we’re facing in life. And reality also has a significant influence on our conception about life’s issues. That’s the reason why it’s so easy for us to allow reality to influence our faith in God in an immense way.
Lot of times, we allow reality to find its way in us through our own feelings by feeding us with all types of bad beliefs which are predicated on fear, doubt, desperation, unbelief, exasperation, and worry. The big issue is that our human feelings are always on a collision course with faith.
Human feelings will try to convince you that God has forsaken you a long time ago, there’s no more hope, just give up, there’s no way you can overcome your current struggle, stop waiting on God, then maybe it’s time for you to try something else while there’s a breakthrough right around the corner. As a result, a life that’s based purely on human feelings is a very miserable, unstable, and insecure one.
The question is how do you keep your faith up while experiencing these very discouraging feelings? The main issue is that these feelings are bursting forth out of our very own human nature, which renders them to very influential and powerful in many ways, especially in the area of our thinking.
Keep in mind, faith always defies human feelings and reality. While we’re not supposed to deny reality; however, we need to understand that it has absolutely no bearing on what God is able to do, what He’s willing to do, and what He’s about to do if we trust Him. Most importantly, faith isn’t based on what reality says. Since there a is constant struggle between how we feel and faith; thereby, we have to keep on working on our faith continually by trusting God by taking His Word at face value.
In that case, the empowerment of the Spirit of God is very critical if we want to have an edge over our human feelings that are weighing us down, which can potentially become a very serious impediment regarding us being able to exercise our faith in God in such a fashion that pleases Him (Hebrews 11:6). While you are into a panic mode worrying about what might happen, God is working on something that will take your walk with Him to a totally new level.
Faith And The Word of God
First, faith isn’t based on human feelings but rather on the Word of God (Romans 10:17). So there’s an inseparable bond between the Word and faith. Apart from the Word, faith is purposeless and useless. Most importantly, the Word of the living God is the core foundation of our faith. Moreover, the Word is also the very element that maintains and sustains our faith since the power of God is hidden through His Word. Our faith is the means that enables us to tap into that power.
When going through life’s storms, we still have to fight the good fight of faith in order to keep the steadfastness of our faith. When trusting God, what you really have in the equation is Him; His Word which is the very embodiment of whom He is; us; and our circumstances; not what our human feelings would want us to believe.
The truth is that God being there with us as a loving and caring Father cannot be measured by how we feel but by our faith in Him on the ground of what He says in His Word (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5; Psalms 94:14). Moreover, God doesn’t operate on the basis of feelings but according to the principles laid out in His Word. So how you feel in relation to bad circumstances you’re dealing with doesn’t really have that much of an impact on God.
What truly matters to God is when you choose to rise above the circumstances you’re facing by putting all your trust into Him, irrespective of how terrifying and desperate they may look. Therefore, the Christian life that we must live has nothing to do with human feelings but what God says in His Word. Believing and embracing that vital truth should compel you not to focus intensely on how desperate the circumstances may be but on what God is able to do in response to what you’re going through right now.
Conclusion
Keeping your faith high in the midst of bad times is a matter of bypassing your own human feelings by relying on God. The point is that you can spend your whole time complaining and whining about your difficulties or hardships, the big problem is that nothing will ever happen. You can explain what you’re going through to your family members, your friends, and the very thing they are more prone to do is to be pitiful to you by saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry for you“, and “Oh, I feel very bad about that“. As Charles Stanley says, “The more pity they give you, the bigger the problem gets, and the more you’ll doubt God.”
Well, since we are human beings with emotions and feelings, when troubles hit, the very first thing that will be affected significantly is our feelings. God knows that, but we have the responsibility to move beyond that because our strength to endure difficult times is based on us willing to trust Him, regardless of how we feel. In other Words, we cannot let our minds to dwell on difficulty or troubles continually. Brothers and sisters, let us allow the Word of God to become the very energy in boosting our faith.