It’s easy to obey when we’re excited about the direction God is calling us. But we often wonder how to obey when we don’t feel like it. To be sure, faith requires our consent even when our heart is not yet fully onboard – when our emotions are still lagging behind our obedience. Such feelings don’t disqualify our faith. They simply name the cost.
On the one hand, we obey because God is God. We give him our yes because he’s the ultimate authority in our life. And this is not conditioned on our understanding or agreement.
All the same, this does not negate the human experience of potentially feeling emotional resistance as we obey. For instance, we might choose to love our wife even when we’re still mad at her, give to those in need even when we’re not feeling generous, or treat with kindness and respect those we passionately disagree with. Time and again we’re called to faithful obedience before our feelings are completely aligned.
This tension does not bring into question the sincerity of our obedience, because our obedience is not dependent on our feelings. But recognizing this tension does allow us to honor the cost of our faith.
Faith will often place demands on us that we do not want, but we submit anyway because of our love for God. This does not require us to deny our feelings. But it’s also not letting our feelings be the determining factor of our obedience. We simply name the feeling for what it is, while also refusing to abandon the deeper yes we’ve given to God. And we can do this without beating ourselves up when our feelings are still playing catch up.
In the end, don’t wait until you feel ready. Be faithful even before you feel like it.
