June 12th Devotion

Feelings Are Not Lord, God Is
By Kelly Balarie

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB

I had no idea that almost every single prayer I prayed was about to be answered in just one night…

As it happened, I was only in this mega-church because a woman wouldn’t stop hassling to me to come. Her pestering was stronger than my resistance. So, eventually, my no gave way to a yes. There I was in the young-twenty’s group at the church on a Tuesday night. How? I’ll tell you, against every raging emotion in my body…

I went scared. I went doubting. I went uncertain. I went embarrassed because I wasn’t like these people. I went lonely. I went feeling insecure. My feelings screamed at me, “No, don’t go. Turn around!” At the same time the leading of God was saying, “Go anyway, Kelly. I am your God.” Against every fiber and fabric of my feelings, I went. I sat around young adults I didn’t know – without a Bible, not knowing a song they sang, unknown, and unsure. These people were different, they clapped to songs and sang. I soaked it all in and before I knew it -- the pastor got up and talked. And this, right here, is when my prayers were answered. For everything he said, related to every prayer I’d been praying over the past months. I couldn’t believe it. It was as if he had read my mind and had answered directly from God, for me.

God was saying to me: Faith steps out, by faith, despite its feelings. The pastor announced an invitation. He said, “Right now, is the last moment to sign up for the church retreat this weekend.” I could feel it; God wanted me to go. He wanted me to step out in faith, no matter how I felt. I obeyed my Lord instead of letting my feelings Lord over me. And guess what happened? As it turned out, I met both Jesus and my husband at that retreat. My whole life was changed forever…

But what if I had let my feelings Lord over me? What if I was ashamed that I was the new person and I never went?  What if I was embarrassed that I had to bring a brand-new Bible and stayed home? What if I felt timid and shied back? Feelings, hand-and-fist, fight God’s leadings. Yet, faith and obedience have power to triumph over unruly emotions, if we remember just one thing…

What is that? God’s ways are always greater than our limited understanding. In this, we cannot “lean on our own understanding.” Why? Because our ways are not God’s ways. To our mind and, certainly, to our emotions – we think we know, but we actually know nothing.
His mile-high view is far greater than our certain emotions that tell us something must be as we think it to be. We walk by faith and not by sight. And, this faith, apart from sight, brings God great delight.

Intersecting Faith & Life:
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)

How have you been relying on your own sight? How has your sight been producing fright? Often, circumstances, problems, or people can force us to fear. But what we cannot see is always greater than what we do see. God has a plan. He has a door of escape from temptation. He has a purpose. What would it look like for you to apply faith to what frightens you?