Thoughts or Feelings?

In striving to “take our thoughts captive” (II Cor. 10:5), we are often hindered by our feelings and emotions. It is a battle we face when we choose to live according to the will of God.  We should not live by our feelings because they can lead us astray.

Our feelings and emotions are tied into our human nature, which includes our natural ways of thinking, feeling and acting, all influenced by sin. Paul describes the power of our human nature well in Romans.

Romans 7:15-25.  “I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 

So I find this law at work:  When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

If Paul, one of the most spiritual characters in the Bible, faced these struggles, why are we surprised at our own inabilities to stay holy 24/7?  Why do we admonish ourselves for it and pretend to live otherwise?

Oswald Chambers said, “Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature.  God does not make our character holy.  He makes us holy in the sense that He makes us innocent before Him, and then we have to turn that innocence into holy character by the moral choices we make.”

God won’t just heal us of our human nature.  We have to overcome it by making the right, godly choices for our lives, by turning from sin. Living a godly life is a continuous struggle as we see in Romans, according to Paul.

I believe that if we strive to keep our thoughts in line with God’s word, we’ll be alright.  Okay, we may not always feel like it, but as long as we avoid making drastic decisions when our emotions are running haywire, we will continue on the path God has chosen for us, and remain holy. 

Remember, our thoughts lead to our words, which lead to our actions.  Keep the thoughts pure and the rest will fall in place

**More to come on emotions