Trusting Thursday- Sinking sand or Rock solid?

What are you led by? What directs your thoughts, words, actions and decisions?

As believers in Christ, we're called to walk by faith. Yet so many of us choose to live by something else - our feelings. Have you ever made a decision simply because it "felt right"? Have you ever said something because you "felt like it"? I know I have.

What does faith mean?

-confidence or trust in a person or thing

-belief that is not based on proof

-belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion

-belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.

Let's see what the Bible says about feelings and what living by faith actually looks like........

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful about all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on thine own understanding.

Proverbs 28:26

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Who thought our hearts could be so untrustworthy? It is because they are affected by sin, and constantly changing.

Our feelings are about as certain as the sand on the beach...the sand is always being moved and pushed by wind and water. It may appear as a solid foundation for your sand castle, but if you add a little too much water, your whole building will collapse.

Our feelings aren't any different than that sand - they are easily changed by people and circumstances. One moment you can be happily reading a book, and the next angered by your cat scratching the woodwork! You may feel depressed when you woke up this morning, but after a workout listening to your favorite music, you feel much better.

This is where we see the folly of trusting our feelings. How can you rely on something that is always changing?

Because of the fall in Eden, our entire being is corrupted by sin. Our hearts desire is that which is sinful, and we must always be fighting against the flesh. The battle also resides in our feelings. Our feelings will lead us to do what feels right. If we are to live a righteous life, they cannot be trusted.

We're called to not live by our feelings, but by faith. Our faith is rock solid if we have it placed in God. And this faith is founded on the Word of God. The scriptures tell us how to live and what to believe. This is what should determine how we speak, think and act....not our ever changing and easily influenced feelings. Our faith is not blind, but guided by God's perfect Word. In the end, it is God and His Word that should inform our feelings, not the other way around. When you are tempted to listen to your feelings, or your feelings are overwhelming you, stop and take a look at God's Word. Compare what you are feeling, to what He says. God's Word is your source and foundation. Live by it, not your feelings.

-Olivia Zummach