When Their Feelings Don’t Match Up With God’s Word 

Can you imagine what our lives would be like if we truly just did what we felt like all the time? Seriously. Think about it. 

If you texted that person you know you shouldn’t. If you said whatever came to your mind about everyone you come in contact with. If you only ate pizza and cheeseburgers for the rest of your life. If you never worked a day in your life and spent your days binging Netflix.  

Unfortunately, most of the time what we feel like doing isn’t actually what’s best for us. Our feelings fluctuate by the minute based on what we see or hear. Thankfully, we have access to something that doesn’t ever change–the Word of God. 

When what you feel doesn’t line up with God’s Word, that’s where faith and wisdom come into play.  Jeremiah 7:9 says that our hearts are deceitful above all things and Proverbs 3:5 asks us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. The Bible straight up tells us that we can’t make decisions based solely off of how we feel. 

The world tries to tell us again and again to follow our hearts, but the Bible warns against it. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” That’s a pretty extreme statement! This is why it’s so important to accept wisdom from the Word and from other godly influences in our lives.  

Leaders, be this godly influence for your girls! Help them explore the relationship between their feelings and what they know to be true. Emotions aren’t a bad thing—Jesus Himself felt a lot of emotions! But we can’t let them be ultimate. We must intentionally use them as guides to point us back to the Lord and His Word to be reminded of what is true.  

There’s a correlation between our thoughts and our emotions. I’m certainly no expert, but I’d go as far to say that our thoughts control our emotions. When I start thinking about certain subjects, my emotional response is that of sadness, anger, and confusion. There are other things that I can think about that result in excitement, gratitude, and expectation.  

Encourage your girls to be careful with what they take in and what they think about. If they spend their time stalking the social media of that boy who won’t text them back, of course they’re going to have feelings of despair and sadness! Encourage them to intentionally spend time with family or friends who will bring them contentment instead. If they spend their time scrolling through TikToks listening to people share their opinions on topics that don’t line up with God’s Word, but it seems to make sense to them, encourage them to dive into Scripture and have conversations with people who know God’s Word instead. 

God is God and we are not, even when our feelings don’t match up with our expectations of who God should be. We wouldn’t want to serve a God who made complete sense to us anyway—then what would we need Him or faith for? Bring your feelings to God and ask Him for help with them: “God, I’m really sad about this situation and I don’t understand why it’s happening. Please help me to experience your peace that surpasses all understanding and help me to come to you with my emotions instead of turning to other things that won’t help in the long run.” 

God made us emotional beings. But He is consistent when our feelings are not. We should take comfort in that and leave our emotions at His feet.

Brooke Hill is a Baylor University grad who currently lives in Fort Worth, TX. She has a precious golden retriever named Bear (Sic ‘em!). Brooke has experience editing in the Christian publishing world and loves to be a part of a team who works with authors and crafts books to reach their maximum potential. Brooke enjoys finding ways to serve in her community, reading a good book, marveling at God’s creation through traveling, and a cozy night in with some yummy pizza.