Feelings and emotions do not determine acceptability with God. Some feel that if a worship service is not emotionally charged it becomes dry, dull, meaningless, and not acceptable to God. Certainly, our worship must be “in spirit” according to John 4:24. However, the same passage also says that it must be “in truth.” Everything we do should be heartfelt, rather than mechanical. When one obeys the gospel, it must be from the heart (Rom. 6:17–18). Yet, what “feels good” to the individual may not be authorized by Scripture—that is, it may not be “in truth.”
A woman once related her “conversion” experience:
“When I heard the preacher pray for me, suddenly I felt as light as a feather. I felt like I could have floated right out of there. I received Jesus in my heart as my personal Savior and really felt I was saved.”
Upon being questioned about her experience she was asked, “When you felt as light as a feather, were you really as light as a feather?” She replied, “Certainly not, I just felt like it.” Then she was asked, “When you felt that you could have floated out of there, could you have really floated?” Again, she answered, “No, I just felt like it.” Finally, she was asked, “How then do you know you were saved if you only felt like it?”
Solomon wrote, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Prov. 14:12) Jesus warned His disciples that many would think they were doing God service when they persecuted and even killed them (John 16:2). Saul of Tarsus fulfilled that prophecy when he persecuted the church and approved the death of Stephen (Acts 7:58; 8:1–2; 26:9–11; 1 Tim. 1:13). Do you suppose Saul “felt” he was saved at the time? Did he feel he was doing God’s service?
And what about Cornelius? (Acts 10) He was a good and religious man (v.2). Surely, if anyone could have felt saved, it was him. Yet Peter had to teach him what he must do to be saved (Acts 11:14).
We can know we are saved—not by feelings or emotions, but by humble obedience to the will of God. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:3–4)
The real question is: what are His commandments regarding being saved, and have I obeyed them? On the Day of Pentecost the lost believers were told, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” (Acts 2:38). That was a command! When they obeyed it, they then became saved believers (vv. 40–44).
Another question is: as a believer, have you obeyed that command? If you have, then you can know you are saved—just like those people were. And then you will have far more to depend on than mere feelings.
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