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When God created us in His image, He gave us the ability to feel and to think. Our capacity to have feelings, desires, and emotions is from God, so our feelings, desires, and emotions are not irrelevant to our humanity. At the same time, God also blessed us with the ability to think, discern, and make decisions. A problem arises, however, when we confuse thinking and feeling. Many people today do not seem to understand the difference between thinking and feeling. What’s more, many are confused about how to make the right decisions and draw the right conclusions in life. In generations past, we were told, “Do what you know is right.” But for decades now, most people have been taught by the culture, “Do what feels right.” Furthermore, they have been taught that doing whatever feels right is the definition of freedom rather than being taught that true freedom is the ability to do what we know is right.
Not surprisingly, many in our day are questioning their identity, sexuality, and gender based on mere feelings. This should deeply sadden us and prompt us to proclaim the gospel to all with compassion and care. People who are confused in this way need to know the grace of God in the good news of Jesus Christ.
When unbelievers exchange the truth about God for a lie, they will naturally exchange what they know for what they feel. They will exchange their knowledge of what they know is true for their most base feelings of what they hope will give them the most readily apparent pleasure. In the end, people who are separated from Christ will do what feels most pleasurable. In this, they receive encouragement from the culture, which tells them not to bring their feelings in line with reality but to bring reality in line with their feelings.
Even we as Christians can sometimes be deceived by our feelings. We can fall into deep unhappiness, loneliness, despair, or shame and feel as if we are not truly saved. This can occur when we feel beaten down by our sin and when our enemy accuses us. We must remember that sometimes our feelings are the greatest liars. We must not allow our feelings to override what we know to be true. We must preach the gospel to our feelings and ask the Lord to help us not forget that we are in Christ. We must never allow our doctrine to conform to our feelings, but we must always make our feelings conform to our doctrine.