The Search for Significance

124 The Search For Significance
A third obstacle to abiding in Christ is that
many believers become too mystical, looking for
some supernatural feeling in their relationship.
This dependence on feelings leads to two problems.
In the first one, a person waits for feelings
to motivate him, while in the other, the person
sees virtually every emotion as a sign from God.
Let's examine these.
Some Christians do not get up in the morning
until "the Lord tells them to." They don't want to
share Christ with people until they "feel" like God
is prompting them. What these Christians are forgetting
is that Christianity is primarily faith in
action. Our emotions are not the most reliable
source of motivation. Yes, the Holy Spirit does
motivate and empower us, but He has already instructed
us through the Scriptures with the vast
majority of what He wants us to do. Rather than
waiting for a "holy zap" to get us going, we need
to believe the truth of God's Word and take action
for His glory. Must we wait until we feel like God
wants us to love other Christians, pray, study the
Scriptures, share our faith, or serve His cause? No!
We need to follow the examples recounted in
Hebrews 11 of the men and women who acted on
their faith in God, often in spite of their feelings.
True, these people were often reflective and
prayed about what God wanted them to do, but
they always acted on the truth of God.
The other extreme of dependence on feelings
occurs when people believe that their emotions are
a primary means of God's communication with
them, and therefore, their feelings are understood
as signs from God to indicate His leading. This
conclusion often leads them to make authoritative
statements about God's will (for both themselves
and others) that are based on no more than how
they feel. As in the first extreme, the Scriptures
are forced to take a back seat as even foolish and