Don’t Live by Your Feelings
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit
Galatians 5:25
If we are to live by the Spirit and not by our feelings, then we must know the origin of our emotions. Feelings like fear, sadness, and grief are a normal part of life. However, Satan wants to use these emotions to produce in us a fear of life, hoping we will lose our faith in God. Other emotional feelings can come from physical pain or fatigue, but most of our feelings are generated through our thoughts.
Our feelings come from our thoughts, mostly from our conscious thoughts but they can also come from our unconscious thoughts. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4). Our thoughts drive our feelings and if our thoughts are driven by the external world, then we are slaves to the world. If we trust the Lord and focus on serving him and walking in his wisdom, we have overcome the world and we are free. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). If we cannot control our thoughts and our feelings then we are in bondage to the world.
We can often change how we feel by paying close attention to what we are thinking. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). We have the power of Christ in us to change how we feel by changing how we think, if we capture every thought. We cannot change our feelings directly because they are a sensation in our flesh, but we can change our feelings by changing our thoughts. Just as encouragement replaces negative thoughts with positive ones, it also replaces our negative feelings with good, motivating feelings. Science has shown that encouragement not only changes our brain chemistry but also makes changes in our body, giving us energy.
If we live with confidence in the power of God in us, we can overcome Satan’s worldly attacks. We do this by capturing worldly, sinful and fearful thoughts and bringing them to obedience in Christ, giving us a powerful feeling of victory. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). We can live victoriously in Christ and be lifted up, or we can live defeated in Satan and be destroyed. It’s our choice.
Today, monitor your feelings and if they are negative and discomforting, take notice of your thoughts. Change the thought by giving the negative ones to the Lord and then, choose to walk in his peace and joy. The more you practice monitoring your thoughts and feelings, the more you will find that subconscious thoughts are now brought into conscious thoughts.
Let’s Pray: Lord, help me to capture every thought, and take control of them, so I can make wise choices and not emotional ones. Free me from bondage to the world and help me to be controlled by your divine, loving will through the Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen