I am and always have been an overly emotional person. I cry at commercials, movies, books, stories, etc. When something makes me happy, I can soar off into elation rather quickly. When something makes me mad, I can rapidly spiral down into full blown, hard-to-control anger. Emotional responses make me feel alive in a way, and I rely on my emotions too often to gauge the reality or depth of something.
For many years, I believed that to be saved I had to feel saved. I sought an emotional high that would make me feel good and thus assure me of a real salvation. Year after year I would rededicate my life to Jesus at summer camp. Anytime I attended a youth retreat or worship concert or Christian day at Carowinds, I was one of the first to run to the front during the altar call. I wanted to feel saved so I chased emotional experience after emotional experience. Not surprisingly, my emotions would eventually fade and I wouldn't feel saved anymore and I would fear going to hell. My emotions could never assure me for long.
Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
My heart and my emotions are incredibly fickle and they change dependent upon my circumstances. I never experienced a true, lasting heart change, so my emotional highs were simply lies meant to deceive me and prevent me from seeking out Christ in a real way. The enemy fed me the lie that I had to feel saved to be saved. I was following my emotional responses straight to hell.
For those of you who have been following on my blogging journey, you know that God has been changing my heart in real, lasting ways. I am seeking Christ as opposed to emotional responses. I am relying on the truth of Scripture, not necessarily what makes me feel good. I no longer have the need to feel saved because I know I am saved.
1 Corinthians 1:21-22 - "And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and has given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."
Romans 8:16 - "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
2 Timothy 1:12 -"Which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have
believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me."
As I study and learn more about my God, the more I am assured of my salvation. "Jesus is Lord" is my sacred confession and I know that my God is mighty enough to save me, even when my emotions are not completely in tune. I believe the words in 1 John 3:20 that "God is greater than [my] heart." ( [my] changed from the word [our] for emphasis of the point.)
Some still ask, well how do you know you're saved if you don't feel it? I know I am saved because of the evidences of a changed life in me. I am not the person I was before Christ, because Christ is now in me and I seek him and his glory.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come."
Ezekiel 36:26-27 - "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in statues and be careful to obey my rules.
I am a new creation in Jesus, with a new heart, even on the days I don't feel all that new. I have an assurance in something far greater than my emotions-I have assurance in the power of Christ's death and resurrection to save me and make me righteous. I don't have to feel saved, because God has already saved me and I can cling to that confidence when times are hard and circumstances dictate my fickle emotions.
Hebrews 10:21-23 - "And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."
This is not to say that there is not an emotional response that comes with new life in Christ. Absolutely, when you enter into new life, you will feel joy and elation and your emotions will be bubbling over. You will have times when you will feel like your heart is going to burst from the overflow of love and grace you feel through the Spirit. I am not saying that emotions are evil or that we should never feel anything, I am saying that we cannot rely on our emotions to assure us of our salvation. Feel your emotions, but trust in your Jesus for your salvation and rest in the Spirit to assure you of your adoption into God's family.
No comments:
Post a Comment