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How Do You Feel?

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Nov 23, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 46.

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How Do You Feel?

By C. L. Taylor

Did Not Feel Right—Went All Wrong—A Better Guide than Our Feelings
By C. L. TAYLOR
SUNDAY morning: I feel fine. I am rested, I have a good appetite, I feel like reading my Bible, I feel cheerful, I feel like praying, I feel like a real Christian.
Monday morning: I feel just fairly good. I did not sleep well last night, and this morning it is cloudy. I feel a kind of premonition that something will go wrong during the day. I don’t seem to care about reading; and anyway, I am late in getting up, so will let it go.
Tuesday morning: I cannot tell how I do feel this morning. Everything went wrong yesterday. One of my neighbors came over to talk business with me; and feeling that he was crooked, I told him so. I am not feeling much like praying, and what good is prayer when you don’t feel like it?
Wednesday morning: I feel of pretty good courage to-day. Yesterday was a splendid day, and I accomplished a great deal. I feel thankful that I have health, home, and a hope in God.
Thursday morning: Please don’t ask me any questions. Yesterday afternoon, I lost my patience; and when my wife remonstrated against what I was doing, I felt still more out of sorts, and I gave her a piece of my mind. Then, when prayer meeting came, I couldn’t pray, nor could I bear testimony. I felt like a hypocrite. There is nothing to be gained by trying to act like a Christian when you do not feel like it. And I do not feel like praying even now.
Friday morning: I feel as though the past twenty-four hours had been about right; still, I suppose I ought to have gone over to my neighbor and righted up that blunder I made the other day. But I can’t feel like doing it, and so what is the use? And there’s my wife. Oh, well, I cannot help my feelings. I can say, however, that they get the best of me right along. I do not feel like reading my Bible and praying with allthese things on my mind. Maybe I shall feel better later.
Sabbath morning: Just what is the matter nowadays is hard to tell. This is the day when I ought to feel near to God, but I do not. I ought to feel like reading my Bible; but after a hard week’s work, and so many trials, I find my Bible distasteful. I ought to feel like going to church; but when one’s whole feeling is against it, nothing is to be gained. I really wonder if I am a Christian. One thing is certain: if I cannot get to feel better before long, I might just as well cease my profession, and act out my nature as it really is.

FEELINGS ARE NO GUIDE

The Christian life is based not on feeling, but on faith in God and His word. Feeling is not faith. Feeling is never a true guide.
Feeling is dependent upon conditions, upon circumstances. When the sun shines, when friends prove true, when business is good, when health is perfect, then feeling is generally quite enjoyable.
But faith lives and thrives without sunshine, without friends, without prosperity, without health. Faith is a principle which triumphs over all opposition, and does its very best when conditions are the very worst.
Faith ignores feeling. Faith leads one to pray when he feels least like it, to read his Bible when he feels indifferent, to give of his means to gospel work when he feels penurious, to sing when he feels to scold, to labor when he feels lazy or tired, to acknowledge the Lord Jesus before his brethren and the world when he feels like a hypocrite.
An old adage says, “We cannot hinder the birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from building nests in our hair.” Thus it is with bad feelings: we cannot prevent their coming and knocking at the doors of our hearts, but we can refuse to give them any place in our lives.

IGNORE FEELINGS

Ignore your feelings. They are probably ill this morning because your stomach is out of order, or your nerves short circuited. But God is not dead because digestion has gone wrong, nor has He ceased to regard you because your nerves are out of order.
Keep so busy with thoughts and deeds of faith, that you will have no time to consider your feelings. Do not talk about them, whatever you do. A feeling slighted and neglected is soon dead.
Do friends ask you how you feel? You need not answer the question. To do so might open the floodgates of discouragement. Let your reply be one of faith. Keep on the right side in what you say, and very quickly you will find yourself on the right side in what you live.
Talk faith. Act faith. Treat your bad feelings as unwelcome visitors, and they will one day cease to make their usual calls.