Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
This verse indroduces on of the Bible’s great chapters–what someone has called “The Bible’s Hall of Fame.” Beginning in Genesis–with Able, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham–and continuing through the Old Testament, the author spotlights those spiritual heroes who stayed faithful to God in the face of almost overwhelming odds.
Why did they remain faithful? One reason is because their faith was in God and His promises, and not in their feelings. These great men and women of faith faced discouragement and doubt the same way we do. But their trust was in God, not their emotions–and the same should be true of us.
Emotions aren’t wrong; God gave them to us, and they are an important part of life. But our feelings go up and down–and if our faith is based merely on our feelings, it too will go up and down. Only when we build our lives on Christ will our faith be stable and strong. Don’t let your feelings mislead you, but base your faith solely on Christ and what He did for us through His death and resurrection.
Dear family,
Has anyone stopped to think what our lives would be like if everything we did was based on our emotions and feelings instead of our faith, duties and responsibilities? How many times would Mom or Dad just not get out of bed and go to work each day to provide for our family? How many heartaches would we run from rather than
doing the hard things parents have to do to ensure the family’s welfare? And how would our spiritual life fare if our daily walk with God was driven by our feelings that day instead of the unalterable truths in the Bible? How would our children turn out if we do what feels good instead of doing what’s right?
Hopefully the answers to these questions are self-evident. Not only would our lives be in chaos, but our hope, future and dreams would be denied to us. Those visions of children growing up in harmony, obedience and commitment to our family, would be never materialize. We would be denied the fruits of our sacrifice and diligence with our kids as they mature and grow into adulthood. Visions of joyful, appropriate love maturing into healthy marriages and more family to love and cherish would fade as distant memories.
And our spiritual life would follow suit. Every act would become relative, right and wrong would disappear and our faith and morality would descend into “If it feels good do it”. That path, as we all know, does not lead to joy, peace or communion with God. When we follow our feeling instead of the truth, when we count on our emotions rather than our reason and when we deny the behavior God instructs us to practice, we jeopardize all the good things for which we strive so mightily.
It is hard to trust God, to do the right thing and to follow our faith rather than our desires for comfort and avoidance of difficulty? Yet, it is the price of peace, joy and true faith. Our choice, each of us, each day is whether we love each other and God enough to make the tough choices, do the right thing and stay true to God’s will.
Sadly, we have experienced what happens to our dreams when we don’t. Hopefully, our heartaches will steel us and ensure that we avoid such an experience again. However, even though the feelings and emotions we endured during our first experience would be enough to make some folks stay in bed, we will face the future with faith, hope and confidence that we have learned our lessons well and will not repeat them. That is true because our faith is not based on our feelings, but on God’s power to turn even our worst nightmares into a blessing.
Trusting faith,
Dad
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