I bow my knees before the Father … that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength … to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. (Eph. 3:14, 16–19)
Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I just don’t feel God’s love or sense his presence like I used to”? If you were brave enough to tell a friend, they might have said something like “That’s okay. Faith is not a feeling.” I find that response unsatisfying—not only personally but also biblically.
Consider the Laodicean church (see Rev. 3:14–22). Jesus describes their actions as neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. This was so unappealing to him that he would have preferred them to be cold toward him instead. Their emotional response mattered to him. Their faith had a feeling.
Or think about the promise of 1 John 4:18: “perfect love casts out fear.” Obviously fear is more than a mental construct or an act of the will. It’s also an emotional response. Whatever drives it out must also be more than a mental construct or a willful act. Love, then, must be experienced even more than the fear it counteracts. Faith is not a feeling, but it has attendant feelings.
Look again at Ephesians 3:16–19. Notice how Paul knows that we have to experience our faith, not just think about it or act on it. He prays that our spirits will be strengthened to know Christ’s love. And that knowing is much more than an intellectual, fact-based kind of knowledge. It’s experiential. It’s a knowing that surpasses knowledge. It’s a connection with Christ that so fills you that you can’t help but sense how much he loves you.
Clearly faith is more than a feeling, and it is possible to overemphasize the role that feelings play in your faith—but it is just as easy to undervalue them, as well.
What is one indicator, then, that you have really been saved—that you’ve been brought into a vital relationship with Christ? It’s that you, having once had feelings of closeness with Christ, now want them again. When you feel like you’re missing out on something with him, that is evidence that a relationship exists between you—a connection that gives you confidence to pursue him.
And it tells you more. That nagging sense of wanting more connection isn’t one-sided. Your relationship with God is like any healthy relationship, in which both parties want to connect with each other. That dissatisfaction comes not only from you but also from the God who started a relationship with you. His Spirit yearns for more of you—even more than you do for him (see James 4:5).
Far from being a sign that you’re not connected to God, being dissatisfied with his absence indicates that you already are connected to him and that he’s calling you to have even more of him.
I HOPE YOU FOUND THIS REFRESHER TO BE OF HELP TO YOU.
PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM
EVERLASTING SALVATION CHURCH OF GOD MINISTRIES
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