.jpg)
Articles
Feelings Can Fooled
We would like to study from an Old Testament story back in Genesis 37. You remember from the story that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, thus they had to tell their father something about Joseph. In verses 31-34, "And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days." Now this illustrates for us a very important principle we want to notice. The passage says that Jacob mourned for his son many days. If someone asked Jacob if he felt that his son was dead, what would you think his answer would have been? Of course he would say that he felt that his son was dead. Were his feelings accurate in this matter? Did his feelings make his son dead? Or can we see an important lesson here? Yes, Jacob received some misinformation and his the feelings were misdirected. I do not believe that Jacob could have felt any more sadness if his son was truly dead. But beloved, we need to see that feelings can be mislead. We have lots of folks today who feel that they are saved. They feel that they have been forgiven by God. If you ask how they know that they have been forgiven, they will say they feel it in their heart. But the problem is that they have not obeyed what the Lord has said for a person to do to be saved. They have been given misinformation, as like Jacob, and their feelings are misdirected. We are saved when we obey from the heart what the Lord teaches us to do to be saved, and then the feelings of joy will follow, cf. Ac.8:35-39. It’s facts, faith, and then feelings.
