“How are you feeling?”

That may be the most asked question in our culture today. If so, it’s also the most irrelevant one.

It’s never the first thing said. That’s always a greeting, something akin to “Good morning” or “Hey, how’s it going?”  Then, as soon as that is accomplished, out comes the “feeling” question.

Whether the questioner really wants or is expecting an answer is debatable. But we ask it all the time.

I was speaking to an important gathering in the state capital and had been invited to bring a few family members. My 90-year-old dad had traveled nearly 200 miles with my brother Ron that morning. They walked into our hotel room around 10:30.  My wife greeted my dad and hugged him.

“How are you feeling, Pop?” she asked.

Dad smiled and said, “Well, when I got up this morning I decided not to ask myself that question because I might not like the answer.”

Ah, wisdom.

That was over 10 years ago, but the words ring true today.

These days, my wife battles a number of chronic health issues. Nothing life-threatening, thankfully, but a whole series of nagging, troublesome issues that make her daily existence miserable.  This morning as I sat working at the laptop before leaving for a preaching assignment 70 miles away, Margaret was slowly moving around in the kitchen preparing something to eat in the hope that she could make it to our church.  I could tell she was in constant pain.

One thing I’ve learned not to ask as she begins to stir in the morning is “How are you feeling?”  The answer is rarely pleasant, and she would just as soon I not ask it. I understand.

In the long run, how we feel about anything doesn’t matter a great deal. Sometimes you have to go on regardless how you’re feeling.

Taking orders from one’s feelings is a sure recipe for failure, misery, depression, and futility.

–People awaken on Sunday morning and say, “I just don’t feel like going to church today.”  Sound familiar? When I make that point in a sermon, across the congregation I see husbands and wives give each other that knowing look. They said it, but got ready and came on anyway.  Almost invariably, they’re glad they did.

–I imagine everyone awakens on Monday morning saying, “I don’t feel like going to work today,” but they go on.  The depression that they sensed at first was momentary. Had they given in to it and gone back to bed, they would have regretted it.

–Pastors know what it is to do a thousand things they “don’t feel” like doing.  I’ve made pastoral calls on members doing everything in their power to get me ousted from the church, but when they had a crisis in the family, you do anything you can to comfort and help.  I’ve called on people to apologize for my own foolish remarks that came back to haunt me. Did I feel like doing it?  Not hardly.

–One evidence that we have finally become grownups is we can make ourselves do the hard things, those things we don’t feel like doing but know we should because this is right and duty calls.

We would do ourselves a great favor by rescuing our spiritual lives from bondage to our emotions.

Whether you “feel saved” has nothing to do with anything.  Have you repented and put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ?  Have you confessed Him and been baptized and joined a fellowship of believers?  Are you making an effort to stay close to Him by reading His word, praying to Him, and obeying Him?  Then, ignore those feelings.

Feelings are poor barometers of anything.  You might feel poorly today because of what you ate last night, the bad mattress you are sleeping on, some hurtful remark from a close friend, or what the stock market did yesterday.

“God is faithful.” 

Say that to yourself–out loud, yes!–over and over. “God is faithful!” He is not dependent on the stock market or your emotions or your digestive system. (Or His!–lol.)  He does not walk outside and check the weather to see if He will keep His promises today or take a poll to decide whether to watch over you and me. There are no loopholes in His promises, no escape clauses from His guarantees, and He has no bad days.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. That’s Hebrews 13:8. Take it to the bank.

“There is no shadow of turning with Him” is how the hymn puts it.  They got that from James 1:17 which says, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.”

Here is I Kings 8:56.  “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.”

Here is Psalm 36:5. “Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens; Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.”

Here is I Corinthians 1:9. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

And Hebrews 10:23. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

And 2 Timothy 2:13. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.”

One more? This promise does not mention “feelings,” but the implication is there. “In whatever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” (I John 3:20).

We live by faith–not by sight, not by our fears, not by works, and most definitely not by our feelings.

Thank you, Lord!  Ten thousand times, thank you!

I was walking in our neighborhood late last night and looking at the moon. We now know a thousand things about the sun and moon of which previous generations never dreamed. We know their composition and also their vulnerability. We know anything could happen to either and earth would be in great trouble. And yet, they have stood in place for all these uncounted centuries, doing their job to stabilize life on this planet. And they do this with no help from us. Man does not regulate them, service them, change their batteries, or lift one finger to affect what they do. They are in their place doing the work God gave them to do when He placed them there. We are the recipient of their faithfulness and blessed by the Creator who set them in place and assigned them their roles.  “How great Thou art!”