Commitment over Feeling
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
1 John 4:18 (NIV)
Our culture has taught us to treat feelings as the most reliable guide to truth. If it feels right, it is right. If you do not feel it, it is not real. We apply this logic to our relationships, our decisions, and, unfortunately, also to our faith. When we feel close to God, we are confident. When we do not feel close to God, we begin to doubt whether He is even there.
But feelings are not truth. Feelings are responses to circumstances, to physical states, to sleep, hunger, stress and sunlight. Feelings come and go with the weather of our interior lives. And if we make them the primary measure of our relationship with God, we will have a profoundly unstable spiritual life.
Paul says in 2 Timothy: I know whom I have believed. Not 'I feel very close to him today.' I know. That is the language of conviction, of settled trust, of commitment that does not depend on the emotional temperature of the moment.
What makes the difference between a Christian whose faith holds under pressure and one who falls away? In large part, it is this: commitment. Feelings come and go, but commitment stays. We who have committed our lives to Christ may feel joy, gratitude, love, and peace. But even when we do not have those feelings, commitment keeps us true to Him.
And here is the remarkable gift of commitment: it also drives out negative emotions. John says perfect love casts out fear. Do not suppress it. Casts it out. When we are deeply committed to the love that God has for us, when that love is not just something we feel in good moments but something we know in the depth of our being, fear loses its grip.
John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the American Declaration of Independence, put it simply: it is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.
Commit yourself today. Not to a feeling. To a person. The most faithful person in the universe.
Prayer: Lord, I commit myself to You today, not based on how I feel but based on who You are. When feelings of doubt or fear arise, anchor me in the truth of Your love. Let commitment, not emotion, be the foundation of my walk with You. Amen.
Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church
Enjoyed today’s devotional? Sign up for our newsletter and never miss a daily devotional.
