FACT, FAITH, THEN FEELING

My eyes open and the first thing I think of is, "How do I feel?" I go throughout my day and more often than not, my mood is guided by how I feel. I even come to the Word like that. I approach the Lord and start sorting through my feelings. I've been reminded again lately of how backwards that is. I was reading Hannah Whitall Smith's A Christian's Secret to a Happy Life and she described the correct process so succinctly that it's been really easy to remember and bring to mind ever since. The concept is not new and I've read it in other places, most notably in John Piper's books on desiring God. She is talking about the difficulties Christians experience in consecrating themselves to God and says this -

"The one chief temptation that meets the soul at this juncture is the same that assaults it all along the pathway, at every step of its progress; namely, the question as to feelings. We cannot believe we are consecrated until we feel that we are: and because we do not feel that God has taken us in hand, we cannot believe that He has. As usual, we put feeling first, and faith second, and the fact last of all. No, God's invariable rule in everything is, fact first, faith second, and feeling last of all; and it is striving against the inevitable when we seek to change this order."

How many times have I felt this striving of the soul against God's prescribed order. How much time have I wasted in self-pitying prayer, trying in vain to get in the right mood or have the right feeling? No, it is not this way at all and I would do well to remember the faith of Abraham who believed in spite of what his eyes saw, because he was "fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." (Romans 4:21) Just today I was reading Psalm 42, which is a classic example of how to hold onto faith in spite of your feelings. David says, "Why are you cast down, O my soul...?", as if to say, "What's wrong with you? Why are you so down in the dumps?" And then, "Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God."

Changing the order of things doesn't necessarily mean that all things then fall into place like a neatly written out math equation. The facts are there - they are available to me as soon as I crack open my Bible. Faith isn't foreign and inescapable either. I have a choice as to whether I place my faith in what He has said. But feelings; well, feelings aren't some sweet treat that comes tumbling out of the vending machine as soon as you put the money in and press B9. Sometimes you have to wait. You have to keep feeding your soul with the facts and building yourself up in your faith (Jude 20). Keep looking to Him as the source, as the Life that will flow through the thirsty branch (John 15). "Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.." Psalm 25:3.