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Feelings: Gauge or Guide?

If we're honest with ourselves, we live much of our lives reacting to situations instead of taking a proactive stance. We allow our feelings to guide us. We feel first, then react. On the surface, it may sound like a normal healthy response, but consequently, it leaves us feeling like a victim—powerless to change our feelings and its accompanying consequences. But it's not supposed to be this way.

God designed your feelings to gauge, not guide. The dictionary describes a gauge as an instrument for measuring the amount of something, typically with a visual display of such information. Your feelings are meant to gauge whether you are walking in the Spirit or walking in your flesh.

Your feelings were never meant to tell you what to do, where to go, what you should eat, and how to react. We are to be led by the Spirit of God, not by our feelings. Remember, feelings are fickle; they are not facts.

As we studied Abraham's life, we saw how his feelings led him to make all kinds of decisions that were not in line with God's best for him. Like him, we often feel like we have no choice in the matter—like feelings are imperatives. But during this month, you will learn how to separate your feelings from the truth of what's really happening at the moment. Our toxic feelings are often based on memories of past events that take us out of the present and take us back to the past event where we experienced the hurt or trauma. So in most instances, we can't see a clear picture of what's really happening because it's tainted by the past event. That's why we are not to trust our feelings.

When the Bible refers to the heart, in many instances, it refers to the intangible parts of our being where our feelings and emotions reside, and it's not always a pretty place. Jeremiah 17:9 describes the heart as "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Again, we see why our feelings are not meant to guide us. 

It's time to change your perspective and begin to treat your feelings as a gauge for measuring your spiritual walk. If your emotions are high, that's your cue that you need to spend more time with your heavenly Father. Like a check engine light in the car that alerts you that your car needs to go in for servicing, your feelings can serve as your check engine light to let you know that you're in need of a spiritual tune-up.

Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you as you use your feelings to gauge whether you are walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. When you walk in the Spirit, you will experience the fruits such as love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). But when you walk in the flesh, that's when you experience overwhelm and anxiety. 

Emotional discipline and maturity will require that: (1) You identify what feelings are driving you; (2) You feel your feelings without reacting to them; (3) You bring them under submission to God.

Action Steps

When you experience an anxiety-producing feeling today, use it as a gauge to let you know whether you need to meet with your heavenly Father.

Reflect

1. What is a pervasive feeling that you experience often?

2. Why does the Bible say that the heart is deceitful and sick?

3. What fruits of the Spirit are you currently experiencing, and how do you continue in them?

Prayer

"Dear Lord, Thank you that you are so much greater than my feelings! They have dragged me around into all kinds of situations that have left me full of shame and guilt. In many ways, God, I have made my feelings my Lord and let them rule over me in the place that you belong as my only authority. I've done what I hate so many times because of my feelings—usually trying to avoid the ones that feel awful, but sometimes just to enjoy the ones that feel great. Please forgive me, Lord! Today, I am trusting in your unconditional love and in the knowledge that you are so much greater than my feelings! Help me, please, to trust in you when I start to feel tempted to let my feelings be my boss. Reassure me in my hour (or split second!) of need that your ways are so much greater than mine, and that includes my feelings. Give me the patience to pause before acting on them, allowing them just to be. I desire to grow so close to you and to know you so intimately and closely, sweet Lord! Instead of stuffing down and burying them, Lord, I will trust you with my feelings and experience the freedom, peace, and joy that your compassion brings! You are truly awesome, God! In Jesus' name. Amen!"