Acting and Feeling

God commands His people to worship and our response to that call is much more about obedience than our feelings. One could argue that when we do not feel like going to church or participating in worship that that is indicative of our very need to do so—to obey the command to worship, to heed the call of God to enter His presence.

In his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson addresses this very issue:

We live in what one writer has called the “age of sensation.” We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.

Actively fulfilling God’s commands can lead us to the place of right feelings. This is part of the prayer of Psalm 37:4, as we delight in the Lord, He give us the desires in our heart—the desire for the good things, the desire for Him. I had a dear friend who was living with terminal cancer. One of her favorite verses that came to mean more to her through her trials was Psalm 118:24. She rested in that verse because it was a constant reminder to her that the day before her was made by the Lord and that, come what may, she was commanded to rejoice.

The authentic nature of praise starts with a heart of obedience and submission to God’s desires. The beautiful response is that our heavenly Father shapes our desires from our old practices into His image (Col 3:9-10). With knowledge, a heart of obedience, and renewed desires, we truly will respond whole heartedly with faithful worship that engages our entire being—including our feelings.

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