Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
How true it is that often what we feel can easily become the force, road map, and the guidance system that directs our actions and stance on life and even church matters. There is nothing wrong with ‘feelings’ - God gave us this emotion to glorify him. But the problem is our emotional capacity has also suffered in the fallout of Adam’s sin. This means that even our feelings, opinions and ideas in and of themselves, cannot be trusted. They need to be constantly aligned against what is perfectly right - the Word of God.
In our day and age, culture is experientially based, where ‘feeling’ is a powerful driving force for much of our society. As we see, this runs its devastating course in morals, ethics and relationships. As believers this cultural ‘norm’ should not be so among us - right? Our ‘feelings’ no matter how right we think they are, must be evaluated against the Word of God. David Powlison in his book ‘Seeing With New Eyes’ says this:
The ambiguous words “I feel” are commonly used in four distinct ways. The phrase speaks of experience, emotions, thoughts, or desires. Serious problems arise because the word is typically loaded with authority: “If I feel it, then it’s inherently true, right, and valid.” Clear biblical thinking pierces the fog of ambiguity and authority that wraps itself around “feelings.” As minds and hearts are renewed by the Spirit’s life-giving truth, everything about us is touched.