Fact vs. Feeling

This morning I had the opportunity to interact with a new believer, a 10 year-old girl in our neighborhood. It was tricky, especially because the follow-up material I used was way above her vocabulary level.

Talking to her was frightening, confusing, and yet awesome all at the same time. This was my first time ever following up with a new believer, and I was afraid that I would say something wrong, or she'd misunderstand. I certainly stumbled and bumbled a lot, but still...God's Word does not return void! Man, how I love that verse!

I wanted to share something that I thought was really insightful in the follow-up material, and I hadn't thought about in this way before. The section was titled "Dealing with doubts in your relationship with Christ", and I'll quote:

"Even though feelings are important, your relationship with Christ is based on facts, not on feelings that can change daily.

Doubts, questions and varying emotions are common parts of everyone's life, but they are very unreliable gauges of anyone's relationship with Christ. The Christian lives by faith in the trustworthiness of God and His Word.

This train diagram illustrates the relationship between fact (God and His Word), faith (your trust in God and His Word), and feeling.

The train will run with or without the caboose. However, it would be useless to attempt to pull the train by the caboose. In the same way, do not depend upon feelings. The promise of God's Word, not your feelings, is your authority.

But what if you don't feel like a Christian tomorrow? Place your faith in the faithfulness of God Himself and the trustworthiness of His Word. The more your learn of His Word, the more you will be able to answer any doubts with solid facts. Your feelings will begin to respond to the truth of God's Word and not to your circumstances."

Wow! Nicely put!

You can imagine how encouraging it was to me to remember this when I came home, feeling like I'd really flopped (a doubt/feeling). But God's promise is:

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." ~ Isaiah 55:10-11

In Christ,

Ellie Faggion