Trusting God when we don’t feel it…
If you are anything like me, there are times when you just don’t feel it…
God seems far away, silent…event absent.
Feelings at this point are not the best barometer for our belief. While we don’t have control over our feelings, we do have control over what we do with them.
One thing I have learned, more from error than getting it right – is to take my feelings and feel them, name them acknowledge that they are real… BUT not let them dictate my decision or conclusions. I want to say it is easy to do this, but it isn’t. what I will tell you is that it is worth the effort. Kind of like exercising, we don’t feel it until we are in the middle of it or at the end of a great workout. Then we love it and are committed to never miss a day again! (fess up… you can relate- right?)
We have all had mountain top times, when God seems so near and involved in our lives it is almost tangible. I want to live there! You??
More often than not we live in the valleys, the flatlands, or the “this is hard” lands and like the psalmist and prophets of old, we ask “where are you God?’ Why are you so far of? how long must I endure this…?”
In these moment there is one thing I call to mind.
One thing I have concluded is an unshakable truth: God is good, present and loving me, even when I don’t feel it.
On the toughest of days…
In the middle of a struggle, disappointment, dragging myself through hormones, depression and doubt… I remind myself of this conclusion. sometimes out loud… repeatedly!!
And while it isn’t magic or produce instant results…, slowly the truth I choose to mindfully believe and cling to, no matter what my feelings are, takes on a louder voice than my feelings and slowly my mindset shifts. (Ok, sometimes it is me yelling it to myself…”I believe God is good, present and loving me, even though I don’t feel it fight now!!”)
Not the flowery, hope, joy and sunshine of some faith posts, but the honest, raw reality of what it looks like to walk by faith, to choose to believe., to trust in the goodness of God..especially when we aren’t feeling it!
How do you deal with tough days, times when you aren’t feeling it? how do you keep the faith?