God Doesn't Care About Your Feelings...

...and this is good news!This title is certain to make most women angry, and probably quite a few men as well. I've been in a marriage long enough to know that if I ever told my wife this, I would be in the living room on the couch with the dog.But I assure you, it is really good news. I'm sure many of you are thinking of Bible verses like "Come to me you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest," or "Cast your cares upon Him because he cares for you." You might be ready to drop the heresy card on me in the comment section, or maybe even make me an evangelical outcast twitter sensation, (which wouldn't be the worse thing for blog traffic), so let me clarify.God doesn't care about your feelings when it comes to keeping the promises he made to you. I hear it all the time. I've said it quite a few times. "I don't feel God's presence, so something must be wrong." To put it another way, "I don't fell God, therefore he is not there." This sentiment goes back to a deeper value of the culture. If we don't feel something, it is therefore invalid. Couples say they no longer feel in love, therefore they do not love each other. If we don't feel passionate about following God, therefore we shouldn't. It is the desire for authenticity pushed to an unhealthy extreme, and it is directly affecting the way we perceive God's presence and promises.God doesn't care about your feelings. He doesn't care if you feel his presence, if you feel affection towards him, if you feel moved by every single quiet time you have, or if you feel like all your prayers are heard. God will do what he has promised regardless of how you feel!God doesn't care about your feelings when it comes to the following promises:

1. His presence - When Jesus is about to ascend at the end of the book of Matthew, he closes his time with his disciples with a promise. "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20b) We don't need to feel God's presence in order to have his presence. God doesn't promise that we will feel his presence all the time. In fact, it is probably rare that we will feel God's presence. Because of our culture's infatuation with feeling everything as well as knowing it, Satan has tricked us into thinking there is something wrong with us if we don't feel God's presence 24/7. God has given us his presence, regardless of whether or not we feel it.
2. His impact - Growing up, I believed that every quiet time I had was supposed to be life changing. If I didn't walk away from reading my bible, journaling, and praying ready to change the world, eradicate all my sin, give all my money to the poor, and be raptured, then the quiet time must not have worked. When I realized that not every devotional time was life changing, my reaction was often times to quit. I don't think I'm alone. This goes for church services as well. People quit quiet times or stop going to church all the time because we are under the false assumption that we must feel God's impact instantly for it to be working. God has promised that if you are exposing yourself to his word, he will impact you life. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11 ESV) God doesn't care if you feel him working in your life, he will impact your life.
3. His listening - God hears you. He hears every single prayer and makes a decision about its content. The problem is that we don't often feel like God hears our prayers. This is usually because God's response to many of our prayers is either 'wait' or 'no.' If Lauren is talking to me and she can tell I'm not really listening to her, she will probably try and get my attention to remedy it. But if it keeps happening, she will just eventually stop talking to me. I think this is what has happened to the average American Christian's prayer life. We feel like he's not listening to us, so we assume that it's true. God' doesn't care if we feel like He's listening to us, He is. If we have been justified by Christ, God will hear us. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”” (1Peter 3:12 ESV)

God doesn't care about our feelings, and it's good news!Questions:What are other promises God keeps regardless of our feelings?How should knowing God's promises change the way we live?Have you ever struggled with not feeling God? How did you deal with it?