Feelings Of Faith

Feelings of Faith

Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Mark 4:38

A STORM WAS RAGING, the disciples were panicking, and Jesus slept. That’s hard to do on Galilean fishing boats. They weren’t very big, and with twelve men along for the ride, it couldn’t have been a relaxing environment even on the calmest of days. But this day wasn’t calm at all—both outside in the weather and inside the disciples’ hearts. High waves broke into the boat, it filled with water, Jesus’ friends were terrified, and he was having a quiet little nap.

Faith itself is not an emotion, but it is accompanied by many. It embraces peace and calm, quiet resolve, expectant joy, even the zeal of the Lord, and it rejects fear, panic, dread, discouragement, and other volatile moods that undermine its power. In fact, we can be sure that if we are in panic mode, we are not in faith; and if we are in faith, we cannot be in panic mode. Our emotions play a significant role in how our faith develops and what it looks like to others. They are symptoms for diagnosing the condition of our spiritual health.

If we are praying “in faith” for God to do something and are still worried about or discouraged over the situation, signs suggest that we don’t really believe. If we really believe God is going to do something good or trust him to work things out, we tend to get happy about it in advance. Our faith affects our emotional state, and our emotional state affects our faith—which is why it is so vital to cultivate a climate of worship, gratitude, peace, and joy in our hearts and homes even before God has answered. Jesus was able to sleep in the boat because he knew he was on a mission from God. He surely had to be alert to enemy resistance, but he didn’t have to worry about whether the Father would take care of him along the way. He recognized God’s plan and trusted him to watch over it. Faith gives rest to a restless heart, even as the storms of life rage.

God incarnate is the end of fear, and the heart that realizes that he is in the midst . . . will be quiet in the midst of alarm.