The word of the Lord is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. – Psalm 33:4-5

Feelings are important. God created them, and He expects us to experience them. He doesn’t expect us to be emotionless machines. But feelings have no intellect. They are real and powerful, but they do not think. All we can do with our feelings is react. Feelings will react to a lie just as they react to the truth. Feelings even react to things that are not real. That’s why feelings must always be the caboose of the train, never the engine.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan turned the caboose into the engine. By appealing to Eve’s feelings and desire, He convinced Eve to take the fruit and look at it from his perspective. He put the truth into the caboose position. So when Eve took the fruit and ate it, she was rejecting the truth in favor of her feelings.

Most of the mistakes we make are caused by following our feelings. Feelings are very real, but the question is, are they right or wrong feelings? If you attend a scary film at night, you might have trouble sleeping because of the feelings of fear that the film evokes in you. This is true even though neither the characters nor the events in the film were real. Whether or not the source of the feelings is real often has little to do with how we react in our feelings.

As you grow in your walk with Christ, test your feelings against the revealed truth of His Word. Align your actions to the truth rather than responding in your feelings, and you will find peace, calm, and a life of stable wisdom.

Check out more from Tony Evans @ Tonyevans.org