Topic: Faith, Not Feelings, Pleases God [RICK WARREN Devotional 27 August 2020]
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Faith, Not Feelings, Pleases God
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
Job 1:21 (NIV)When you are a new Christian, God will often give you confirming emotions so you’ll know he’s there and he cares. But as you grow in faith, God will wean you of any dependency to rely on your emotions to believe he is present and at work in your life.
God’s omnipresence and the manifestation of his presence are two different things. One is a fact; the other is often a feeling. God is always present, even when you are unaware of him, and his presence is too profound to be measured by mere emotion.
Yes, he wants you to sense his presence, but he’s more concerned that you trust him than that you feel him. Faith, not feelings, pleases God.
The situations that will stretch your faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found. This happened to Job. On a single day he lost everything—his family, his business, his health, and everything he owned. And, most discouraging, God said nothing to Job for 37 chapters!
How do you praise God when you don’t understand what’s happening in your life and God is silent? How do you stay connected in a crisis without communication? How do you keep your eyes on Jesus when they’re full of tears? You do what Job did: “Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised’” (Job 1:20-21 NIV).
Tell God exactly how you feel. Pour out your heart to God. Unload every emotion that you’re feeling. Job did this when he said, “I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak” (Job 7:11 GNT).
He cried out when God seemed distant: “Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house” (Job 29:4 NIV).
God can handle your doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion, and questions. You can take everything to him in prayer.
- In what ways can you demonstrate your trust in God even when you don’t feel his presence?
- What are some specific things you can praise God for, even when you don’t understand what’s happening in your life?
- Do you ever feel anxious about taking your doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion, or questions to God? Why or why not?