“Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,” ~ Job 1:20 

Our modern culture is mired in the unreliable realm of feelings. We, as a people, have allowed feelings to overrule facts, common sense, laws, justice, and sadly, even faith! Our news reels and social media are overflowing with images of all sorts of violent or bizarre behavior that is justified by “how someone feels”. While our Creator made us to possess emotions, those emotions were never intended to possess us! “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it!” “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind!” 

In the realm of Christianity, the search for a “feeling” can be a dangerous thing! You are not close to God because of how you “feel”! You are close to God if your attitudes, actions, and affections line up with the Word of God! I am quite certain that Job was feeling the heaviness of grief and loss that had befallen him on that tragic day. Yet he fell on his face and “worshipped”! He did not do so because he had some warm fuzzy feeling: he did so because his faith taught him that God is always good, God is always right, and God is always there! 

I am not against the “peace that passeth all understanding” nor that “joy unspeakable and full of glory”! But my faith and faithfulness to God are not to be based on whether I am “feeling” those things! My faith is to be built on the unchanging Word of God not upon my frail and ever-changing feelings! 

In Job 23, the great man could not “feel” the presence of God, but he exalted in knowing that God was there, whether he felt it or not! That is the essence of true worship! 

Food for thought! 

Pastor Bish