When we’re passionate about pursuing God well and honoring him with each choice we make and step we take, we can get misguided. As a friend and I talked about next steps she was determining, she mentioned a need to feel a certain way before being certain of God’s wisdom and guidance. I let it sit. I prayed. I reconnected the following day.
We certainly want to pursue God’s perspective on something. We want to discern the direction and the pace of his will. But if we wait for a specific, expected feeling, we might stagnate the process or get off track quickly. We often need to step out in faith without feeling a certainty or peace about the situation. Our certainty and peace are rooted in our relationship with God and who he is, not what we feel. Let’s face it: our emotions enhance our lives, but they are not always reliable. We cannot wait on or trust human emotion in order to respond in faith.
In order to yield to God and trust his will, including his emotions, we need to relinquish our feelings and set them aside. When we feel what he feels—grieved, joyful, anxious, jealous, angry—we are positioned with God. We will not respond perfectly, but we can respond well.