How to Live with Faith Over Feelings

Psalm 42:5 gives us each step we need to take to move from being ruled by our feelings to being led by faith in God. In today's video, I’m sharing what those steps are and how to practically take each one to live the purpose driven life you were called to live. 

Have you ever woke up in the morning and just felt off? You just didn’t feel yourself and your heart and mind was bombarded with anxiety and fear even before your feet hit the floor? Then those feelings followed you throughout your entire day.

Too often, we think feelings are out of our control, but the spirit of God gives us control and dominion over not just our bodies, but our minds and hearts as well. This means we do not have to be led by our feelings. Instead, the Bible tells us to be led by the Spirit. We can’t be led by both. So in the face of intense emotions and feelings that are very real, how can we choose not to be led by feelings but our faith instead? Here are 3 simple steps to take to walk by faith and not be led by your feelings.

1. Process your feelings.

First, you need to understand and process your feelings. This is not the video where I tell you to ignore your feelings and act like they don’t exist. The writer of Psalm 42 gives us great insight into how to process our emotions in a healthy and Biblical way by first acknowledging how he actually feels.

The Psalmist doesn’t pretend like he feels fine when he doesn’t. He’s honest about feeling down and we need to do the same. We can’t control our feelings if we act like we don’t have feelings. At the same time, however, we can’t control our feelings if we only acknowledge how we feel but stop there. God’s call to be led by Him does not mean we ignore how we feel. That’s why He also calls us to cast our cares on Him. (1 Peter 5:7) Take time to pray to God and pour out your heart to Him. Be honest with Him about how you feel and know that He can take it. So the first step to not being led by our feelings is to first realize how you feel and process why you may be feeling that way. Once you’ve processed your feelings, you don't stop there. If you do, they are sure to stay with you and lead your day. Instead, you move on to the next step which is to . . . 

2. Redirect your focus.

After acknowledging how he feels, the writer of Psalm 42 then tells himself to trust God anyway. Psalm 42:5 continues:

The Psalmist feels his feelings, but he tells himself what to do. Hope in God! Feelings come and go and they do not have to control our actions. We still get to choose how we respond and what we do. When we forget we have a choice in how we respond to our feelings, we become hostage to our emotions. Instead, Psalm 42 reminds us to exercise control over our feelings and to tell ourselves what to do. We can say “Yes I feel down today, but I choose to trust God” or “Yes I feel insecure today, but I choose to focus on the fact that I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God.” Feelings may pop up unexpectedly, but we get to choose what we believe and what we focus on. What does Psalm 42 teach us to focus on? God. Place your hope in Him. Shift your focus to Him because the truth is, God is bigger than any feeling you have and He is greater than any circumstance that may be causing you to feel the way you’re feeling. And because He is greater, we can move on to step 3 . . .

3. Praise God anyway.

Psalm 42:5 in its entirety reads:

I love the progression of this verse. First he’s downcast. Then he decided to have hope anyway. And finally tells himself what he will do: praise God. Don’t let your feelings stifle your praise. Not only can praising God shift your feelings, praising Him will help you to have the right feelings. 

We’re reminded that we don’t have to wait until we feel good or life is perfect to praise God. You’ll be waiting forever if you do that. But when we focus on God and praise Him despite our feelings, we’ll find that our feelings will follow. Praising God doesn’t have to be just during worship songs. It’s doing the next right thing in spite of your feelings. That may be overlooking an offense, cleaning your home without complaining, showing up to work on time, or reading your Bible. Being led by faith means we choose to worship God in our actions first and let our feelings catch up.

I don’t know how you’re feeling today or what you’re going through, but I do know this: our feelings come and go but:

Faithful lives aren’t led by feelings, but by God. So I encourage you to

1. Cast your cares on to God
2. Redirect your focus to God
3. And worship God anyway

Now I’d love to hear from you. What step do you plan to take today to live by faith and not by feelings?

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Thank you so much for watching today and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and beloved.