Close to Jesus ... faith or feeling?

Quite a few people seem to have trials and battles because they don't "feel" close to Jesus. The Bible makes it very clear that we are not supposed to go by our feelings, "we walk by faith, not by sight"(2Cor 5:7). If we start trusting or relying too much on our feelings as an indicator of how well we are doing spiritually, we are going to be very unstable. We'll be continually tossed to and fro by every wind of feeling that comes along.

Regardless of how we may happen to feel, if we love the Lord and are walking by faith and obeying His Word, then we know that our relationship with the Lord is still firm. He says,"... I have loved thee with an everlasting love...(Jer 31:3) "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee..."(Isa 54:10) "...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."(He 13:5)

If you are running on your feelings, then the devil is going to do his best to get you feeling terrible most of the time, trying to convince you that you are a failure and that you are so terrible ect... until you are totally defeated and in despair.

I know that some people do "feel" close to the Lord, they feel close to Jesus. " I am just going to snuggle up in Jesus' arms now", they say. Some people just have more imagination, more creativity to be able to fantasize and enjoy things like that, whereas others of us can't just imagine or picture things like that. We all have certain personalities, and some of us are very much more emotional and very much more feeling than others. But if we worry about whether or not we have feelings we will be a mess. So, we just have to take things by faith. There aren't too many verses in the Bible on feeling, but there are a lot about faith and trusting the Lord and believing His Word.

So, how can you know if you're close to the Lord ? You can know by His Word, that says that if you "draw nigh unto God" ... by your submission and obedience to Him ... "He will draw nigh unto you" (Ja 4:7-8). Even if you can't feel anything, any closeness at all, you can still know you're close to Him if you are doing your best to love the Lord and please Him and obey His Word. We've got to just go by the facts, by the Word. And your faith in His Word and your obedience and yieldedness have nothing to do with your feelings ! You don't have to have an emotion.

Of course, when we slip and fall because of sin or disobedience, it's easy to feel condemned, but you must not let the enemy, or even your own heart, condemn you. (1Jn 3:20). An awful lot has to do with your heart, with your attitude. If you sincerely want to please the Lord and do His will, to love Jesus and live for Him, the He will certainly "draw nigh unto you" when you call out to Him.

So just because you are feeling down does not necessarily indicate that you're far from the Lord. You can be very close to the Lord even if you feel terrible ! Sometimes we feel bad because the Lord is speaking to our hearts about something, convicting us or even warning us about something. So, we can't just dismiss all bad feelings as from the devil either.

So, how do we stay close to the Lord ? " Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."(Jn 14:23). You obey His Word ! It's not a matter of feelings at all. The point is, we can't trust or put our faith in our feelings. We don't walk by our feelings, we walk by faith !