Questions & Answers
With Dr. Bob Burrelli, Grace Bible Church
Our society determines what is right and wrong on the basis of raw emotions. How does that motto from the recent past run? “If it feels good, do it.” Believers in Jesus Christ drop all such mottos from their vocabulary and the philosophies they espouse from their lives. They have shed their bombed—out shell of a worldview at conversion, having exchanged it for the biblical one, which does not allow for raw emotions to motivate godly behavior or to dictate what is right and what is wrong. These kinds of emotions are simply the byproduct of what takes place in our thought life, or our “heart” as Jesus called it. God’s truth must motivate our godly behavior and how we feel. Christians must let it not raw emotions rule their hearts. How could any believer love his enemy if he had to feel love for him first? We cannot just sit and work up such a strong emotion of love for our enemy. That is not how it works. Biblical love is first an action, which will breed the proper emotion of brotherly love when it is practiced. We have to love our enemies whether we feel brotherly love for him or not; Jesus says so (Matthew 5:40). When that truth rules your heart, and you trust that this command is the best possible option for you in regard to your enemy, practicing it will yield the true emotional response. Don’t trust feelings.
The Bible never indicates what it’s like to “feel” God in prayer or sense His presence. God’s promise is to be with believers always (Matthew 28:20). You may feel that God has abandoned you, but His promise says otherwise—which will you trust? Your suffering may convince you that you cannot bear up under the trial, but God promises that He has tailor-made that very trial for your good, to conform you to Christ (Romans 8:28 and 29), and it will never be beyond your ability in Christ to handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). Which will you trust, your emotions or God’s promises? Satan would like us to doubt God’s Word. It seems that his job is that much easier in a feel-good society.
When you pray, believe the promises that God has given you regarding prayer, which are several: 1) He gives good gifts to His children who ask for them (Matthew 7:11); 2) He will grant all requests that are in keeping with His will and asked in Jesus’ name (John 14:13 and 14); 3) when you are at a loss for words in prayer, the Holy Spirit will interpret your thoughts at God’s throne-room (Romans 8:26); and 4) God talks to you, too, through His Word. If you want to deepen your relationship with God, and feel good about it, aside from prayer, obey God’s command to study His Word (1 Peter 3:15) and practice it (Philippians 4:9).