Gravity, Feelings & Faith

Have you ever felt something one day only to not feel it another? Maybe you’ve loved something when you bought it but your feelings changed and you don’t really like it anymore. Feelings are fleeting; they come and go at will and are often dependent on our circumstances. Anyone who has been married for any length of time knows that there are times we don’t necessarily feel the love we have for our spouse. Yet, it’s not a requirement to feel something for it to be real. We don’t feel the pull of gravity holding us to the earth nor it’s holding our planet in rotation around the sun, yet it’s always there. Without it, we’d be drifting away forever lost in space.

The same holds true of God’s presence. It does not depend on our feeling it to be there. It has been said  that sight is the enemy of vision for sight depends on what the eyes can see where vision resides in the heart. Similarly, feelings are enemies of faith. Feelings depend on an emotional response where faith resides in our knowing.

Gravity is a force that can not be seen directly with the eye yet we know it is present by the effect it has on things around it. God’s presence is also an invisible force in our life. The proof of His presence is found in the effect it has in our hearts and in our lives.

God tells us multiple times in His word that He will never leave us nor forsake us. When Jesus came, He echoed the message in Matthew 28:20 saying He would always be with us. We can still do things that make it difficult to hear Him, either by unconfessed sin, lack of time spent in conversation with Him or self-absorption. We may not always hear Him but His words are always there. The same holds true with His presence. It doesn’t matter what I am feeling at the moment, God’s truth is that He is with me at all times.

Just as I know that gravity is what holds my feet to this earth we walk, I know that Christ holds me to my Father. As His child, nothing can separate us. So at times when I don’t feel His presence, I hold to the truth of His words. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And I can rest assured, knowing that I’m not drifting alone.

©2011  Ann Wilds