Have you ever known anyone who said, “I left that church because I just don’t the Holy Spirit there.” or “I don’t know (sigh!)… I just don’t feel God here.” How remarkable that we base so many of our decisions an beliefs on our feelings. How could King David, being driven away by his own son, fleeing for his life, have sung, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth… Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Ps. 34:1,3)? So many times in distress and affliction, David commands his soul to bless the Lord. Where does that come from? I don’t think it actually comes from a deep well of warm feelings. When the “chords of death encompassed” him, when the “torrents of destruction assailed” him, when “Sheol entangled” him (Ps. 18), from his distress he called to the Lord (18:6). Psalm 88 is the perfect example of someone who calls upon the Lord although he does not feel the Lord near. It is the darkest psalm in the Bible, in which there is no hope, no light. It is a psalm of Heman the Ezrahite, a song of the sons of Korah, and we may be grateful to God for its inclusion the psalter. Heman says, “my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit… like those among whom you (God) remember no more” (88:4-5). He also says, “Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves” (88:7). He asks God why He casts his souls away from Him and why He hides His face from Him (88:14). Unlike all the other Psalms of lament, here there is no answer from God, because sometimes God just doesn’t seem answer us. And yet, Heman starts his Psalm in this way: “Oh Lord, God of my salvation”. Now how can a man who cannot feel God speak those words and mean them? I can’t think of a better example of someone who couldn’t “feel” God’s favorable presence than Jesus Christ on the cross, who cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). And yet, when he dies he cries out to his Father, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).
How can the Son of God, while suffering the wrath of God, entrust himself to God? How can David or Heman or Paul (who said: “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” 2 Cor. 6:10) bless the Lord and rejoice in the Lord when they don’t “feel” the Lord? I think the answer is simple. GOD NEVER COMMANDED US TO FEEL HIM. Search the Bible for even one place where God tells us to feel him. He never says, “Feel me!” He does say “Obey me” (Gen. 22:18, 26:5; Ex. 19:5; Dt. 11:27, Jn. 3:36; Acts 5:29, 32; 1 Jn. 5:2; etc.). He says “Trust me” (1 Kg. 18:5; Ps. 4:5, 9:10, 20:7, 37:3; Is. 26:4, 30:15; Jer. 17:5, 7; among many others). He says “Believe me” (Gen. 15:6; Mk. 5:36, 9:23-24; Lk. 1:45; Jn. 1:12, 3:36, 5:24, 11:40, 20:31; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:4; 1 Jn. 5:13; and so many more). We are commanded to trust, believe, know, obey, walk, live, hope, come, taste, see, but never feel. Why?
The fact is, and you and I know it well, our feelings change with the wind. One minute I feel fine, the next a little depressed. I’m not always happy, even when everything is going well. I don’t always feel like God is near. But My feelings are not a good measure for what is true. God’s promises are. God has made promises and told me to believe them and live by them. God cannot lie, but my feelings can. God will not be unfaithful, but I can’t always trust what I feel. God does not change, but my moods do. I must believe the promises of God. That is faith.
So, the next time someone says, “I just don’t feel God here”, maybe that person needs to be told to stop trying to “feel” him and start believing him.
