Sometimes I just don't feel it. Whatever "it" is suppose to feel like...
Sometime I just don't feel that close to God, or feel his presence as strongly as I have in the past. As if there is something that has trapped me and is keeping me from feeling the full power of His presence. An unavoidable feeling that is far from escape.
Am I humbly confessing any sin in my heart that may be standing between God and I?
Am I praying that God would give me more of a desire for His heart, His glory and truth?
The answer would be, absolutely, I am. But yet I am still just not feeling "it." But can we ever really trust our feelings? My heart is an idol making machine, I am bent to pursue things of this world. Even though God has given me a new heart, my flesh and spirit will be in battle, waging war against each-other until I die. Therefore, my heart is not trustworthy of making decisions based on how I feel.
Salvation is not based on feelings, it's based on truth, Jesus, the gospel. Salvation is based on the fact that God imputed righteousness in me, adopted me into His family through Jesus and nothing on earth or in heaven can break that bond- nothing.
It is absolutely absurd to doubt my salvation and rob God of His glory because I am just not feeling "it." God is God, regardless of how I feel. However, I have something far more precious than feelings. I have the Spirit, the same spirit that searches the depths of a incomprehensible God. (1 Corinthians 2:10) Given as a gift from the Father to His beloved child, sealed forever, completely and utterly trustworthy. And I will be lead by Him, even when I don't feel "it." Rest assured, I am His. That simple statement will always bring me to my knees in worship and complete surrender.
Nothing can snatch you from your Fathers hand, even when you may be feeling like He's not there, He is. Ask God to open up your heart and to give you the desire to love Him more. Be obedient, stay in The Word and pray like crazy. Be obedient children, because out of love comes obedience. (John 14:15)
Sometime I just don't feel that close to God, or feel his presence as strongly as I have in the past. As if there is something that has trapped me and is keeping me from feeling the full power of His presence. An unavoidable feeling that is far from escape.
Am I humbly confessing any sin in my heart that may be standing between God and I?
Am I praying that God would give me more of a desire for His heart, His glory and truth?
The answer would be, absolutely, I am. But yet I am still just not feeling "it." But can we ever really trust our feelings? My heart is an idol making machine, I am bent to pursue things of this world. Even though God has given me a new heart, my flesh and spirit will be in battle, waging war against each-other until I die. Therefore, my heart is not trustworthy of making decisions based on how I feel.
Salvation is not based on feelings, it's based on truth, Jesus, the gospel. Salvation is based on the fact that God imputed righteousness in me, adopted me into His family through Jesus and nothing on earth or in heaven can break that bond- nothing.
It is absolutely absurd to doubt my salvation and rob God of His glory because I am just not feeling "it." God is God, regardless of how I feel. However, I have something far more precious than feelings. I have the Spirit, the same spirit that searches the depths of a incomprehensible God. (1 Corinthians 2:10) Given as a gift from the Father to His beloved child, sealed forever, completely and utterly trustworthy. And I will be lead by Him, even when I don't feel "it." Rest assured, I am His. That simple statement will always bring me to my knees in worship and complete surrender.
Nothing can snatch you from your Fathers hand, even when you may be feeling like He's not there, He is. Ask God to open up your heart and to give you the desire to love Him more. Be obedient, stay in The Word and pray like crazy. Be obedient children, because out of love comes obedience. (John 14:15)
Dear Katie,
ReplyDeleteNever trust your feelings if they are causing you any sort of doubt, you have a beautiful heart that is constantly seeking His love. Your posts are an inspiration to me and I am sure many more people that read your words.
Nicolas
While what much of what you said is true, it is dangerous and unscriptural to suggest your salvation cannot be lost. David is a prime example, as he lost his justification by murder and adultery, which is why Paul in Romans 4:6-8 says David had to repent to regain his justification.
ReplyDeleteNick, thank you for posting some feedback. On the contrary I would have to say that it is not scriptural to say someone who has been made new in Christ and who is a new creation in Christ(2 Cor 5:17) could possibly lose their salvation. Also, if you are a new creation in Christ, can you be uncreated? As I'm sure you are aware, we are given salvation by Jesus' death, being the ultimate atonement and sacrifice. If we were able to simply lose salvation then that would mean that Jesus' sacrifice was not enough, it could not cover the vast amount of sin and thus being the reason we would lose it. But scripture clearly states that Jesus' atonement was enough and in his own words "It is finished." It was God's plan from the beginning, to give Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be reconciled back to Him. It would not make sense to give a sacrifice that could eventually be lost. Another dangerous thing about believing that salvation can be lost is the fact that our lives would become more about our works and righteousness to keep our salvation, rather than the righteousness given from Jesus, to us to live a life that he has called us to. It's not about what we do, we do not give ourselves the salvation, it's about what Christ does in us and the gift of salvation given, a gift he would not take away. I am just going to shoot out some passages with examples of eternal salvation.
DeleteJohn 6:38-40 In this verse it says that God will raise whoever believes and has eternal life up in the last day. It would seem hard to avoid the conclusion that everyone who truly believes in Christ will remain a Christian up to the final day of resurrection. It also points out in 39 that Jesus does the will of the Father, which is that he should "lose nothing of all that he has given me." Once again, those given to the Son by the Father will not be lost.
In John 10:27-29 Jesus says he will give them eternal life and no one shall snatch them out of his hand, no one, nothing. No one would include the person who is in Christ's hand, the believer.
In Ephesians 1:13-14 is says that we are sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, which is the GUARANTEE of our inheritance. All who are truly born again have God's unchanging promise and guarantee of the inheritance of eternal life.
We see in Phil 1:6 that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Not our works bringing and keeping salvation, but God who began it, will see it til the end.
Also in the Romans chapter you spoke of, I do not see how you would get losing salvation out of it?
Hello Katie,
ReplyDeleteIn the Romans 4:6-8 passage I referenced, Paul is describing David as getting Justified in Psalm 32. Well, David wasn't converting to Judaism, but instead repenting of his sin of adultery and murder. Thus, David had lost his justification and was repenting to regain it. Another example of losing salvation is Judas, but there is no sign that he repented.
As for the texts of John 6:38-40 and 10:27-29, an important detail that is often overlooked when approaching these two texts is that some of the key verbs are in the Present-Tense in the Greek, meaning the action is being done continuously. In English, this isn’t always easy to convey, and can come out sounding as a past-tesnse-completed action. Take John 6:40 as an example: “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” This might sound as if the “looking” and “believing” are one time acts that happen(ed) in the past, but that’s not accurate. In actuality, these (and other such) verbs are in the Present-Tense, which means they are continuous actions. Thus, John 6:40 should be actually understood as: ‘everyone who continues-to-look upon the Son and continues-to-believe in him should continue-to-have eternal life.’ This is the case for the other verbs in John 6:37-40 and 10:27-29. With that in mind, what emerges is a theme of Security-by-Perseverance and not one of single-moment-in-time Eternal Security.
Sorry, this has taken awhile to respond. But I would say I agree with your last statement. Salvation known by the security of perseverance, that meaning whoever God saves will persevere til the end, if they do not then they were not truly a believer, possibly self deceived. But I don't understand how you can look at John 10:27 and still think salvation can be lost. I understand your description of the process, but its not talking about a process of sanctification when it says no one can snatch a believer out of Gods hand. That's a statement. Anyway, I've enjoyed talking with you, its safe to say that we can agree to disagree.
ReplyDelete