by Dr. Tim Kimmel
Fall 2010
I have no doubt that God cares about how we feel. His Word says that he does (1 Peter 5:7; Matthew 6:25-34; Revelation 7:17, 21:4). But does God care about what we think? If we're not willing to align our thinking with His clearly stated truth, then it's pretty obvious from the Bible that He could care less what we think.
There's a big difference between feeling and thinking. Feelings are emotional free-agents that give us myriad attitudes which are often antithetical to our immediate context (like: crying at weddings or laughing at funerals). God is infinitely sensitive to these feelings in spite of how irrational they might be at times. He consistently shows respect for our feelings because they play such an important role in our lives. They are the exhaust system of our soul that uses tears and laughter to help us maintain human equilibrium. I can't help but think they mirror some of how we are made in God's image.
Unfortunately, too many people let how they feel determine what they think. They let these floating, hazy, freewheeling heart impressions actually lead them to intellectual conclusions that defy any alignment with the facts, truth, logic or common sense. Once they do this, it's easy for them to draw some conclusions about God and how He's choosing to run His universe that may cause them to question His wisdom.
Part of this is actually laugh-out-loud funny when you consider the arrogance of it. Created beings, limited by time, space and intellect actually questioning the Creator of the Universe on the ways He wants this world to be viewed and life to be lived out.
For instance, you read the unambiguous statements in the Bible about saving sex for the singular union between a man and a woman within the covenant of marriage. And then some couple gets the hots for each other, say ... in high school or college. There are no thoughts in their mind about marriage. Their biggest future goal at that point in their life is to find where they last left their iPod and hopefully pass their Econ final. Someone mentions to them that God sees sex as something more than self-absorbed Pilates with a jolt. He sees it as a melding of a couple physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually (among other things). Because it is also the relationship that leads to the conception of children, He wants it confined to the safe harbor of marital commitment. God sees it as a private, personal and powerful gift exchanged between married couples that deserves our respect.
The couple thinks, That's not fair. We love each other. What more beautiful expression of love can a young man and woman experience than enjoying each other sexually? God's standards don't take into consideration the kinds of pressures young folks have growing up in the highly sexualized context of the 21st century. It simply isn't realistic that the Bible would impose such a stringent expectation on people's desires to freely express their love. Bottom line, the biblical teaching on sex—outside of marriage—is completely out of touch with progressive thinking.
Now, if, instead of that flawed thinking (i.e., bologna in the previous paragraph) they were coming to God with legitimate feelings and saying, “O Lord, help me, please! I'm extremely attracted to you know who. Everything within me and around me wants to move this relationship to the horizontal. But I love you and I trust your Word, and I desperately want to obey you. But, O my, it's so difficult. I've entertained thoughts that I know make this situation much worse, and you know full well that we've stepped way over the line in how familiar we've been with each other physically. Please forgive me, Lord and help me. Help both of us, please!”
God LOVES those kinds of prayers! He can't wait to bring His power and presence into a center stage solution for this person. But if instead they give Him that intellectual discourse about questioning the wisdom behind his divine standards regarding sex, then He has no option but to respond accordingly.
Here's God response: “I don't care what you think. You haven't a clue what you're talking about. You're just full of your self, washed in hormones, and thinking like an idiot. So, go ahead and do whatever you're going to do and I'll let the consequences that apply to people who think they're smarter and superior to me run their course. Meanwhile, I'm going to ignore your concerns about how I'm running My universe.”
It gets worse. Sometimes believers actually voice their concerns to God in prayers sent to heaven. The Bible says that when we pray, we're so limited in our humanness that the Holy Spirit has to take our feeble attempts at communicating with God, interpret them, and then restate them on a divine plane that no man has ever or could ever understand. Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
I picture the exchange between some believers, the Holy Spirit, God the Father and Jesus going something like this:
Believer: “Dear Lord, I know what your Word says about divorce but I'm certain You couldn't possibly expect me to stay in a relationship that has long since lost its appeal. I realize that my spouse hasn't been unfaithful or done anything that gives me biblical grounds for turning my back on them, but for crying out loud, Lord, there's just nothing in my heart anymore. I've lost my attraction. It's not fair for either one of us to be stuck like this. And I feel certain that You can appreciate my struggle and recognize the logic in me pursuing a discussion with the divorce attorneys. Besides, think of the impact our charade is having on the kids. Don't You want me to be happy?”
Holy Spirit: “I just got an urgent plea from a very disenchanted follower of ours.”
God the Father: “What did they say?”
Holy Spirit: “Blaah, blaah, blaah ... Blaah, blaah ... blaah blaah blaah.”
Jesus: “Anything else?”
Holy Spirit: “Nope.”
God the Father: “Let's give the standard response to this type of prayer.”
Holy Spirit: “You mean, ignore that request?”
Jesus: “Yep.”
Let's get specific. We know that God's Word not only tells us to love our neighbor, but to show love and mercy even to our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45; Romans 12:18-21). Then we're faced with some real life issues that take center stage in the public arena and we say, “I know what Your Word says, but it's perfectly legitimate to allow national pride and political passion to take the high ground in my thinking—even if they don't ultimately align with Your heart.”
We know what God's Word says about contentment, but we still think it's perfectly legitimate to think that God is required to bless us.
We know what God's Word says about generosity, but we think it's completely acceptable to ignore the urgent needs of the poor and down-trodden we encounter because “We worked hard for our money and deserve to bask in its abundant reward.”
We know what God's Word says about forgiveness, but we think we are 100% justified in withholding that forgiveness from someone who has done us wrong if for no other reason than the sheer pain they caused us. We say, “Lord, they don't deserve to be forgiven and that's that!” completely ignoring what God clearly tells us to do in Ephesians 4:32 (based on what He has already done for us).
God's unwillingness to give us the time of day when we feel He needs help in rearranging his universal priorities isn't an act of unkindness or arrogance on his part. If anything, it's a huge act of divine mercy. He ignores us much like we ignore our children when they think we've lost our mind for expecting them to eat their vegetables, wear a coat in nasty weather, buckle their seat belt, do their homework, or get home before dark.
It's part of our human nature to have feelings that go all over the place, but when it comes to making a plan of action, our thinking needs to be based on the timeless, infallible Word of God. If not, we may allow what we consider to be better to rob us of God's best.
Every one of us would fair far better if we dialed in on the core of what God was trying to tell us through His prophet Isaiah when He said:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
There's a real up-side to adjusting our thinking in this regard. For one thing, life will go a lot more smoothly for us. And the other thing is that we'll spare the Holy Spirit actually having to say, “Blaah, blaah, blaah ... Blaah, blaah ... blaah blaah blaah,” on our behalf!
For a deeper look at God's Word on this subject, check out:
Matthew 22:34-40; Romans 7:18-25; 12:1-3; 16:17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2:14-16 (see the whole chapter); 2 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 4:17-24; Philippians 2:5-11; 4:6-7; Colossians 1:13-18; 3:1-3
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