Yesterday, I told you that I believe that every Christian has the Spirit of God living inside of them. (Romans 8:9). This is one of the sweetest parts of the Christian life... to know Him, and to feel Him moving inside of your soul. He is my companion, my strength, He restores my soul, He guides me, convicts me and comforts me in ways that are hard to describe. He is as real to me as the chair I'm sitting on at this moment.
That said, the message of the Bible is clear: we cannot always "feel" God. I certainly can't. There are times I "feel" like He is absent and like my soul is wandering in "darkness." In those moments, we can't lose sight of this crucial biblical truth: the presence of God is grasped mostly by faith, not by feelings. If you depend on feelings to prove the presence of and love of God in your life, you're going to feel lost and alone most of the time.
We must "believe our way into our feelings, and not feel our way into our beliefs." We must not doubt in the darkness of our feelings what God has demonstrated to us in the light of the cross. There, once for all, He demonstrated His compassion and proved His commitment to us. Found your confidence on the unchangeable cross of Christ, not the capricious winds of your feelings.
One of the practical ways I have told you I do this every day is to pray the "light" of the Gospel into my life. It is a 4 part prayer, and it goes like this. Do this, every day for a month, and I can almost guarantee that through the Spirit it will change your life:
“Father, there is nothing I can do today that would make you love me more; nothing I failed to do yesterday made you love me less.”“Father, your presence and approval are all I need today for everlasting joy.”“Father, as you have been gracious and a servant to me, so I will be to others.”“Father, everything the Gospel tells me about your intentions for my life, my family, and my world is TRUE. I will ask according to the generosity and power You revealed in the Gospel.”
That's a true story, JD. I've been learning this a bit myself. The Spirit does have an impact on our feelings, but so does what we listen to, watch on tv, see in friends, and pretty much every other thing in our lives has an effect as well. If we always listen to what our feelings are telling us, we're going to end up going Jack Bauer on someone after watching 24 or be convinced that there's no meaning to life after listening to Emo music...
Posted by: Anonymous | November 02, 2009 at 11:20 AM
I think being in a small group helps because sometimes you can't see what God is trying to tell you, personally. So it seems that He is not there, or that He doesn't care. But your fellow group members can see God working in your situation, and because of the time and trust that you've built in that relationship, they can remind you. It works the other way as well, in that you have prayed along side with them and know their struggles, and you see first hand God working in their lives. Often God speaks the loudest to us through others. Our challenge is being transparent enough to let God work!!!
Posted by: Melissa Monroe | November 02, 2009 at 01:33 PM
Good word. Daily prayer is such a critical element, and the last sentence of the prayer you wrote out is so powerful: "I will ask according to the generosity and power You revealed..."
We don't feel our way into believing, nor do we study or think our way into it. We ask our way into it. I would add that we obey our way into it as well.
Indeed, obedience and asking are actually one in the same. Christ has not simply suggested we ask for the strength to beleive, He has commanded us to ask God daily, "give us this day our daily bread," (Matthew 6:11). This is not breakfast, it is the strength to believe.
If we will start each day with obedience by this request, I guarantee we will begin to experience the obedience and faith that leads to the bliss of eternal life... starting here and now.
"Obedience is the rehearsal of eternal bliss. Practice by obedience now the song which you will sing for ever in glory. God grant his grace to us! Amen." - C. H. SPURGEON, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, August 21st, 1890.
"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life..." (John 3:36).
Posted by: michael | November 02, 2009 at 07:49 PM
Amen. Excellent. I wish that you could somehow magically make everyone in all the churches I've ever been a part of know and understand this - especially the one that I'm currently serving in.
Posted by: Curt | November 03, 2009 at 08:45 AM
JD,
Regarding your Gospel Prayer, how do you reconcile the first statement in your prayer with 1 John 2:5, "Whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected", which seems to state that we experience God's love at different degrees and those degrees are based on our obedience? Thanks.
Posted by: Billy | November 04, 2009 at 10:50 PM