Not What I Feel, but What I Will
By Charles L. Taylor
FEELINGS are altogether unreliable. One may feel his worst and yet do his best. A good feeling is often found in company with reprobate acts. It is often true that God is nearest His children when their feelings tell them He is farthest away. Even in physical matters the feelings are inconsistent and untruthful. Many times they lead into trouble, by failing to speak in time of danger, and by giving false alarms when danger really does not exist. Feelings are only nerve-voices. And the nerves, like telegraph wires, may become tangled, form short circuits, and transmit to the brain all sorts of confusing, misleading, false, destructive messages. Everybody understands somewhat of this from the experience of weariness. When worn out, exhausted by long hours and taxing toil, one feels oftentimes that his life is a failure, that God is far away, that there is no use trying to overcome. The slightest conversation with his feelings convinces him that he himself is a hypocrite, and that others, too, are only shamming. Sometimes illness comes. The trouble may be either functional or organic. Then it is that the believer becomes sorely tried, life takes on a different hue, and in place of bright hope, he settles down into gloom and even despair. He is sure that he is lost, that God is angry with him; and so he ceases to pray. And he feels every bit of it. In some instances, people are caught napping; and being surprised by temptation, they go astray. Then, waking as it were from a dream, they find themselves overwhelmed with various and conflicting emotions. Everything seems unreal, untrustworthy. They feel themselves unconverted, God's Word unlovely, and even heaven itself undesirable. Yes, they feel it all. But, reasoning sanely and soberly, we all know that God doesn't change with our changes, that hope is not blighted and blasted by illness, that failure does not do away with the love of God. On the other hand, good feelings may not be taken as evidence of a good Christian life. A person may "feel" that he is getting along well when in reality he is not. No, feelings are unreliable, and therefore are not to be trusted. The child of God rests his confidence upon an altogether different foundation. Going Contrary to Feelings
In the spiritual life, as in the physical, we are called upon to exercise the will. Each day witnesses to the fact that young people may go contrary to their feelings, and by so doing win their greatest victories. They do not feel like arising in the morning; but hearing the call of duty or privilege, they deliberately set aside and ignore their feelings, and make the very most of the day's opportunities. The feeling of dislike for work in no wise cancels the fact of the day nor the fact of its responsibilities, because the will is brought into play. Just so it is in the business of serving Christ. Various things may contribute their quota of bad feelings, or, perhaps, lack of feelings, so that the blessings of the Sabbath, of the prayer-meeting, of the reading of the Bible, of laboring for others, may not appeal to us; nevertheless, the will, the deciding power of the life, may so effectually do its part that the heart shall thoroly enjoy all these things which otherwise would be lost. It is too often true that we do right simply because we "feel like it," rather than from a sense of love and filial obedience toward God. We are to love Him and serve Him because He first loved and first served us. And this we may always do, feeling or no feeling. And the reward is just as great, if not greater, when we thus act from principle, and will to do in order that God's will may be fulfilled. Dear young friend, let me urge you to live no longer by feeling. Live every day in the great facts of truth, and make sure that your life is one long I WILL for God.