When You Don’t Feel Like Doing Right 

Can we be honest? Sometimes our feelings don’t agree with what God says. Sometimes we don’t like teachings we find in the Bible, and we don’t feel like obeying them. (Don’t worry—these words won’t burst into flames just because we admitted those truths!) Can we be even more honest? Obeying God won’t always make us feel happy right away—in fact, it might make our lives more difficult and complicated. Doing the right thing is often much harder than sinning. In the long run, God’s ways will make you happiest, but sometimes, in the short run, God’s ways are difficult. They may require you to act selflessly, make sacrifices, or take a stand.

For all these reasons, we can’t base our walk of faith on how we feel. When we make Jesus the Lord of our lives, that means He’s in charge—even when his ways are hard. When we make Jesus the Lord of our lives, that means we follow His ways even when we don’t feel like it. 

There will be many things in your life—and in your faith—that you don’t want to do. Your feelings will tell you one thing, the Bible will tell you another. And in those moments, when you’re tempted to glance at someone else’s paper or pass along a juicy bit of gossip, the wisest call is to follow the Bible instead of your feelings. The Bible calls this “denying yourself.” It’s a basic part of the call to be a follower of Christ:

[Jesus] said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” Luke 9:23-24, NLT 

Following Jesus sometimes means doing things you don’t feel like doing. It means giving up your own way of doing things. And before you start feeling guilty because this is sometimes difficult, keep in mind that obedience is hard for every Christian. Struggling doesn’t mean you’re extra sinful! Even the apostle Paul struggled the same way we do:

The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. Romans 7:21-23, MSG

Sometimes our feelings are at war within us! We can’t help being tempted; it’s part of our human nature. But guess what? When we fight to please God, He stands by our side to strengthen and help us—not just with our actions, but also with our hearts:

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:12-13, NLT

How encouraging! God can give you both the desire and the power to please Him! Whenever you struggle—whenever that desire and power feel far away—turn to God in prayer and ask Him to fulfill this promise in your heart.