What should the title be?

Faith. What is it? There are many bible verses about faith but what do we really know about faith?

Feelings. What are they? We all experience them everyday. How do they function? Are they random?

I pose to you this question: Which one, faith or feelings, should influence our decision-making on a day-to-day basis?

confused

I hope to answer that in the next 70 seconds or so.


Faith. Again, the Bible has an exhausting amount of information about faith. Many of the Old Testament people had faith. Jesus talked about it in the Gospels. The rest of the New Testament also speaks to faith. Pretty important? Yep.

But how does faith influence my daily life? Do I need faith to put on socks? Is faith a requirement to hop in the car and drive to work?

What process do I go through to inject faith into my day?

Let’s talk about feelings for a moment.

How are you today? Personally, I rather dislike that question. It becomes routine to ask and responding to it is superficial. That is a generalization, of course but you get the picture, right?

Our feelings can be all over the place or non-existent. They creep up on us when we are least prepared. Overwhelmed by feelings? Sometimes. Other times, I struggle to display anything at all.

Same response, how do feelings influence my daily life? What if I don’t feel like doing something. Do I just not do it? I feel like today is good. So does feeling that way make that day better than other days?

The whole reason for this post is that this idea of faith vs. feelings has been swimming around in my brain for two weeks now. Time to pull the plug on the pool and see what remains.

Without preamble, here is what I think:

Faith should drive my decisions and feelings will follow.

Jesus talked about what it looks like to be a Christ-follower. And honestly, I cannot recall any parts where he addresses feelings. On a larger scale, the whole Bible speaks more to faith than feelings.

Alright then, faith it is. Simple right? Not always. We are a fallen people and so the body we live in is also fallen. Feelings can be extremely powerful. They are not necessarily bad but they can mislead. Feelings can also be great allies in certain occasions.

God said that greater is He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world.

confidence

See I John 4 for the context of that verse. Whatever you may be facing, ask God to give you faith to make it through. Try not to let your feelings be the rudder of your life. Let God, through faith, direct your path.

That might have been more than 70 seconds so thanks for sticking with it.

God Bless!

 

Kindling and cliches.

Happy New Year! You will hear that phrase many times today. Maybe 50 times. 100? Who knows. No doubt, there will be some people who actually mean it. They are sincere in wishing you a happy 2019.

But there are others who say it just because it is a good thing to say. They are using a cliché. Just hollow words.

I don’t mean to be negative minded today. Personally, when I hear that phrase, it will be fuel to my fire.

pouring_gasoline_on_fire

When I say fuel to my fire, I am referring to two verses in the New Testament.

II Timothy 1:6-7

“6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”

2019 can be a miraculous year. See my last post for details. Anatomy of a Miracle

Those verses have been familiar to me for most of my life. Very recently though, they took new meaning for me.

Catch the second part of verse 6. These words can be revolutionary.

“…which is in you…”

Everything God needs to accomplish His will is already in you. He put it there when you were being formed in the womb. All your life, you have had the skill, talent, ability, resource, etc. for exactly what God will have you do.

But sometimes it is easy to forget that fact.

So whether the ‘Happy New Years’ you hear today are heart-felt or empty words, remember this: fan into flame the gift of God!

Let those clichés turn into kindling!

fan into flame

Make the choice to use the stuff of life to grow the fire in you.

Who knows, something might just catch on fire!