By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed. Psalm 30:7
When your feelings contradict your faith, you have to decide which one to believe.
Consider these two statements:
1. God is there.
2. I do not experience God.
There is no contradiction between these two statements. Both can be true at the same time. The statement “God is there” is a statement about God. The statement, “I do not experience God” is a statement about you.
The Bible speaks often about times when we cannot feel God’s presence, his strength, or his comfort. There are times when God “hides his face from us” (30:7).
When you hit your funny bone, your whole arm goes numb. Great traumas in life can have the same effect on the soul for a time. You do not feel God’s presence, or comfort, or strength, and the reason is not that he is not there. The reason is simply that you do not have the capacity to experience him. Your soul is numb.
When that happens, you have a choice to make. Will you believe your faith (the Word of God), or will you believe your feelings? Jeremiah gives us a wonderful example here. His soul is being washed over with a thousand unanswered questions, but he chooses to trust the Word of God more than he trusts himself.
Has your soul gone numb too? You have a choice to make. Talk to God about your feelings and your faith in the Word of God.
