INTRODUCTION

Have you ever allowed your feelings to control you? I know I have! Sometimes our feelings can be so strong and so intense that they begin to dictate how we live. Sometimes this isn’t that big of a deal, but other times our feelings can have complete control over us! We take a lot of time to teach our children about feelings. I brought with me a book we use—called The Feelings Book. It’s a book that helps us explain to our children what they’re feeling and help them to label their feelings, because if they can label it—“I’m feeling sad” then we can help them know how to address it. So we take them through this book and talk to them about different feelings that children have, what they mean, and how to help them. We do this because we all recognize the power of our feelings, right? We all understand the power our feelings can have over us. Sometimes feelings can take control of our lives. They can lead us down the wrong road and take us to some place we never intended to go! We become in bondage to our feelings.

I remember when I was in seminary I started to become controlled by my own feelings. I worked at the Boston Scientific corporation as a product builder. We built stents and catheters and medical devices, and much of the day was spent looking into a microscope. It was a job that sounded kind of technical but really required no expertise. But I remember trying to balance working full-time while being a full-time seminary student. This was hard! I had to be at class 4 mornings a week and then work the second shift. But this became especially difficult when we would get overtime. There was a period of months when we were on mandatory overtime and it was hard. I had to be at seminary, 20 minutes away by 6:50 am 4 days a week, and on 3 of those days I would have class until 12:50, and then go right to work, not even seeing my wife, and work 2pm-12 am. I’d get home at 12:20 am and would have to decide if I was going to study Hebrew for my 6:50 Hebrew quiz or go to sleep and get some rest; I did some of both. And I remember getting the news that we would have to work overtime. Usually, there were rumblings a day or two ahead, and then we would get the news mid-shift, everyone staying ‘til midnight, we’re on mandatory overtime. And I remember the sinking feeling in my heart. Thoughts of “I can’t survive this; how will I ever get through seminary; maybe I should just quit right now.” I remember the sick feeling in my stomach, and the pit in my throat as I dealt with that—“how can they do this to us? How can I do this to my wife? Will it never end?” My emotions had taken over. I had begun to stop trusting God. I had allowed the immediate to take my eyes off of the future, and instead of living by faith, I was living by feelings, and I was miserable.

Have you ever felt this way? Have your feelings toward someone, or in a certain situation ever stolen your focus so much that you stopped living by faith and began to live by feelings? The Bible describes the Christian life as a life of faith. If you’re going to get through life successfully as a believer, you need to have faith! Yet so many times in our spiritual lives, we let our feelings control us and snuff out our faith. Let me ask you to help me think through some illustrations of feelings vs. faith:

●Someone pulls out in front of you at the intersection to Walmart and you blare on the horn and call them an idiot—feelings or faith?

●Your teenager is taking his or her first road trip driving alone, and try as you may you just can’t stop thinking about it and can’t concentrate on anything else because you’re so worried about them—feelings or faith?

●You have a test or exam at school and you are so concerned about doing well that you’re sick to the stomach—you can’t eat, you can’t sleep, and you can’t get the test off your mind even though it’s still a few days away—feelings or faith?

●You had a bad relationship—maybe a marriage that ended in divorce, or a boyfriend or girlfriend who broke up with you, or a family member that you can’t seem to get along with and you can’t stop wishing you would’ve done this or said that to save the relationship, and it is just absolutely consuming you—feelings or faith?

●Someone in your life hurt you—maybe they said something hurtful about you, told a secret you wanted to keep confidential, or got involved in something that crossed into your area of responsibility, and every time you see that person you can’t help but think about what they did to you and you’re full of both anger and hurt—feelings or faith?

It can be so easy to live by our feelings—we are prone, in our humanity, to let our feelings push out our faith and guide the course of our lives, especially when dealing with some sort of trial or difficult situation in life.

Interrogative: But how do we replace our feelings with faith? How do we overcome our feelings and let our lives be governed by our faith?

God has the answers to these questions. In the book of Lamentations chapter 3, we are taken along on the journey of how the prophet Jeremiah learned to choose his faith over his feelings. So let’s look at Lamentations 3, and the big idea I want you to remember this week is:

Big Idea: God wants us to choose faith over feelings.

You can’t live by feelings and faith; faith and feelings are mutually exclusive; you can live by feelings or you can live by faith, but you can’t live by both; sometimes you have to choose to live by faith; God wants us to choose faith over feelings; we need to trade our feelings for faith. And as we walk through Lamentations 3 we see how Jeremiah chose his faith over his feelings, and we learn:

Transition: THREE STRATEGIES which we can employ to help us choose faith over feelings.

1) We choose faith over feelings when we choose reality over perception (vs. 1-38)

Explanation: as we begin chapter 3 we find Jeremiah sharing in the afflictions of Israel. We see how their sin affected him, and it is not a pretty picture! Boys and girls, you can draw the perception of our trials. Look at:

Lamentations 3:1–8“I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath. He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day. He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones. He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead. He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.” 

This is a horrible condition here! You can feel the pain and anguish of what’s going on in the life of Jeremiah. He is suffering under the real heavy weight and burden of the life situation that he’s been given by God. I’ve read through this passage with some of you—I use verse all the time in counseling or when ministering to people in tough times when I want them to see how Jeremiah went through similar things that we go through and found hope in God. But notice the things he mentions—feeling like he is walking in darkness, like his flesh and skin are wasting away, like his bones are broken, like he is walled in and can’t go out, like a heavy chain is around him, like his prayers are shut out. This guy is really struggling over the weight of what’s going in his life situation! I mean, if he was alive today we’d be thinking he has severe depression—he’d be on meds! Sometimes we feel like this when we go through the tough stuff of life.

Application: Maybe you can relate to some of these feelings in your life—walk in darkness, my flesh and skin waste away, bones broken (obviously imagery here), walled me in so I can’t go out, made my chain heavy, shuts my prayers. Maybe you can relate to Jeremiah here. This is real! And if you’re here today and you know someone like this, don’t minimize that, this is real stuff here, they need your empathy.

Explanation: But Jeremiah experienced that here, and you know what? This wasn’t reality, this was perception. This wasn’t faith at this point, this was feelings. He allowed his perception to take over reality, and it left him miserable. And it’s the same way in our own lives. When we choose perception over reality, we are left empty and in despair.

Jeremiah started off there, but that’s not where he stayed. We see a transition in verse 19. He began to choose faith over feelings; he began to choose reality over perception. And he began to recognize what he had known all along, it just got pushed to the back by His feelings: he remembered that there was hope. The second half of this chapter is all about the hope and relief found in God’s mercy—how he chose faith over feelings. Look at vs. 19-26.

Lamentations 3:19–26 NASB95

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord.

We see that God’s justice—the very thing that brought the sin and judgment in chapters 1-2, is what gives the prophet hope. He reasons here—here’s his logic: if God is consistent enough to bring his judgment when his people sin, he’ll be consistent enough to keep his promises to his people. God’s judgment is the seedbed of hope for the future. What an incredible thought!

Illustration: and notice what we see Jeremiah doing here. Here we see Jeremiah giving himself a counseling session. And we all need to have counseling sessions with ourselves every so often because if we don’t speak the truth to ourselves, we might begin to choose feelings over faith. But here in the midst of utter despair, he counsels himself with hope—he puts aside his feelings and chooses faith! He cries out to God—“God remember me!” And notice how he overcomes his feelings of anxiety and despair. Vs. 21—this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s loving kindnesses never cease. What great hope for someone in the midst of despair! His compassion never fails. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion therefore I have hope in him. Notice how he solves his despair—he rehearses the character of God! When he chooses faith, his faith overcomes his feelings! And folks that’s what we all need to do in times of despair!

Application: in the midst of our despair, fear, or troubling problem, or whatever it is we might struggle with, we need to choose faith over our feelings. One way we do this is by following the example of Jeremiah in our text—we need to rehearse the character of God to ourselves and remember God’s ultimate plan. 

I have some diagrams to illustrate this.  The first is a big picture of God’s plan—everything God is doing in history.  Notice, we are just a small blip on that—God is doing so much more than what is going on in our lives.  The second diagram shows our life—beginning, ending, and our trial.  But many times the way we focus on our lives is like the third diagram—we turn our small, temporary trial into the big picture.  And we can’t see past or temporary trials and see what God is doing.  And even though God is doing so much more than what is going on in our lives, our perception is that this is all this is.  So how do we get things back into perspective?  We need to exchange the third perspective for the first one.  We need to remember that God is doing so much more, and ultimately, one day my trial will end.  And if you’re a believer, you have a future hope.  Your trial right now is just a small part of what God is doing right now.  That’s reality, but many times we choose the perception that our trial is all there is.  That’s where Jeremiah started in our text, but he didn’t end there.  He was able to look past the perception and the reality.  He chose faith over feelings. 

So for us, when the guy pulls out in front of us and we feel like he stepped on our rights, we need to choose faith over feelings. When our teenager takes their first solo drive and we can’t stop worrying, we need to choose faith over feelings.

Big Idea: God wants us to choose faith over feelings.

2)  We choose faith over feelings when we choose relationship over isolation(vs. 39-55)

Explanation: there’s a second strategy to choose faith over feelings, and it’s to choose relationship over isolation; we choose faith over feelings when we choose relationship over isolation. Boys and girls, you can draw a right relationship with God. As we transition into verses 39-55 we see the prophet Jeremiah choosing relationship over isolation. It’s a very specific relationship he chose—it’s a relationship with God. He chose a relationship with God over isolating himself and feeling alone. We find in verses 39-55 a call to repentance. A call to come back to the Lord.  We won’t read the entire section, but notice a few verses here.  He asks in verse 39 “why should we complain in light of our sins?” Then in verse 40 he proclaims “let us examine our ways and return to the Lord!” We see Jeremiah choosing a relationship with God over isolation.

Application: You see, many times in life, especially during trials, we want to be isolated; when we live by feelings we choose isolation. We like to feel like we’re the only one and that nobody knows what we’re going through. And we might take some time to enjoy that isolation. We won’t let anyone in, we won’t let anybody help, and we even become isolated from God. We might try to do things on our own; we might choose our own way of living instead of God’s. But we need to choose faith over feelings. We do this by choosing relationship over isolation. In our passage, Israel chose isolation. They remained isolated from God because of their sin. Jeremiah began in isolation as he focused on his feelings over his faith, but he ended up choosing a relationship over isolation. Look again at what he says in verse 39-40:

Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins? Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord.

He says “why should we complain about what our sin does for us? We don’t have room to complain! Let’s examine our ways and return to the Lord. In essence he’s saying “let’s stop living by feelings and start living by faith! In verse 41 he says We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven. Then we see a rehearsal of the sin and consequences in verses 42-54. We see how they’ve been covered in God’s anger; he talks about their enemies opening their mouths against them; we see the devastation and destruction; the sorrow and sadness. Look at how this section closes in verse 55—I called on Your name, O Lord, Out of the lowest pit. When Jeremiah’s world was crashing in; when Jeremiah was faced with the difficult life situation he had in his life, and the pain and heartache of Israel’s sin, instead of choosing isolation, he chose relationship. He chose to come back to God. He chose to deal with his sin and repent and turn to God. He was done begin isolated and alone and living life apart from God. We find him turning back to God and encouraging the people to do the same!

Application: Sometimes in life, especially when life gets hard, we want to enjoy isolation. We want to remain in our sin a little longer. Do things on your own for a little longer. Try our own ways a little longer. Jeremiah reminds us that this isn’t living by faith, this is living by feelings. We choose faith over feelings when we reject isolation, and choose a relationship with God, take care of our sin, and follow him.

Illustration: Elijah is a man in the Old Testament who chose isolation. Perhaps you remember the story—Elijah had just had his “showdown” with the prophets of the false god Baal. They had a contest to see whose God could send down fire from heaven. Of course, Elijah’s God won. After this, the wicked queen Jezebel promised to kill Elijah. So what did he do? The man who just saw his God send down fire from heaven and defeated the wicked prophets of Baal? He ran! He chose feelings over faith. And he went and hid and asked God to take his life. Later on, as he was still in hiding God asked Elijah “what are you doing here?” You know what he said? He lashed out at God: “God, I did miracles for you and defended your name and now I am all alone—I am the only one left, and they’re trying to kill me!”

Application: Elijah chose feelings over faith and that led to isolation, and God had to remind him that there were 7k who hadn’t bowed down to Baal. Elijah wasn’t alone—there were others who were still serving the Lord. When he chose feelings over faith, it led to isolation. It’s the same way in our lives. When we struggle and go through tough times, we want to feel alone; isolated; unable to be helped. But that’s when we’re living by feelings. When we choose faith, we come back to God and enjoy a relationship with him. We take care of our stuff—our sins, and we return to the Lord just like Jeremiah told Israel to do!

Big Idea: God wants us to choose faith over feelings.

We do that when we choose relationship over isolation.

3) We choose faith over feelings when we choose remembrance over denial (vs. 56-66)

Explanation: there’s a third strategy we can employ if we are to choose faith over feelings, and that’s to choose remembrance over denial; to choose remembrance over denial. Boys and girls, you can draw someone who remembers God. Often times we choose feelings over faith because we forget or deny what we already know about God. We know what God wants us to do; we know how he wants us to live, but we deny it. We act like it’s not for me, or we are somehow excused from living by faith because of our situation. We willingly deny what we know to be true, or we forget what we know about God and so we go and live on our own as we want to live. Look at how we see Jeremiah choosing to live by faith and choosing remembrance over denial in verses 56-59:

You have heard my voice, Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help.” 57 You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!”  58 O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life. 59 O Lord, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.

He remembers. He reminds himself that God does hear, God does not hide. When we choose relationship over isolation and come to God he is there, and he does care, and he does help. This then becomes the basis for Jeremiah’s hope—he says “do not fear!” “You have redeemed my life”. His remembrance of God causes him to hope in God. After he chooses relationship over isolation, he chooses remembrance over denial. Instead of denying what he knows about God and living by his feelings, he chooses faith and this brings hope. Notice how he continues in verses 64-66:

You will recompense them, O Lord,  According to the work of their hands. 65 You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them. 66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord!

He remembers that God will avenge his people and God will bring punishment on his enemies. In essence, he reminds himself that God is faithful to his promises, and we choose faith by choosing to remember him.

Illustration: I remember one situation in ministry where I really had to choose faith over feelings. I had to remember instead of denying. It was an extremely busy week for me. In addition to some counseling, hospital visits, and monthly meetings, I hosted a pastor’s meeting. But what really stretched me that week was I was asked to perform a funeral for an unchurched family in the community who had just lost a 1-month old baby girl. And amidst the pull of all of those different circumstances requiring a host of different types of skills and emotions, I became very weary. And I began to give into my feelings—feelings of denial: “I can’t do this; I’m too tired; I’m not sure how I’ll make it this week; I’ll never get my Sunday sermon done!” But I began to give in to these feelings of denial—I can’t, it’s too hard, I’m not sure I can . . . But what I really needed to do was remember, and eventually, I did. I needed to recall the promises God gives to me—“I can do all things through him; be anxious for nothing; God is my refuge and my strength.”

Application: You see, when we give into our feelings, we forget. We willingly deny what we know to be true about God and we begin to doubt. But when we choose faith over feelings, we remember. We recall what God said—what he promised to us, and we gain hope for going on in our spiritual lives.

Big Idea: God wants us to choose faith over feelings.

We choose faith over feelings when we choose reality over perception, relationship over isolation, and remembrance over denial.

CONCLUSION

We opened today by talking about feelings. Feelings can be so powerful in our lives! I showed you our feelings book which we use with our children, and we all admitted how strong a pull feelings can have in our lives. We also noted the battle. Sometimes we need to choose faith over feelings. We need to put our feelings aside focus on what we know and choose faith when we don’t feel like it. I think this is actually a good definition of spiritual maturity. I remember a missionary we had in our church growing up who said something that always stuck with me: he said

“spiritual maturity is doing what you know you should do even when you don’t feel like it.”

The fact of the matter is sometimes we don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes we have to choose faith over feelings.

I think the most interesting part of this is that Jesus Christ had to make the same choice. As he kneeled in the garden to pray right before his crucifixion, he wrestled with his own feelings. He felt the pull of not wanting to do what he was going to have to do, yet he chose faith over feelings.

And we have to make the same choice as well.

We need to do a Gospel turn—we refocus our lives on the truth of the Gospel and we turn from focusing on ourselves and begin to focus again on Jesus.  I can’t remember where I found this diagram, but I think it’s so helpful to evaluate the course of our lives—where are we headed?  Sometimes we need to do a Gospel turn!  

What would our church look like if we chose faith over feelings? If we made this type of turn in our spiritual lives?

●Someone pulls out in front of you at the intersection to Walmart you choose to show them love and grace.

●Your teenager is taking his or her first road trip driving alone, you choose to trust in the sovereign hand of God.

●You have a test or exam at school and you are so concerned about doing well, you choose to cast your care upon the Lord.

●You had a bad relationship—maybe a marriage that ended in divorce, or a boyfriend or girlfriend who broke up with you, you choose to leave the results up to the knowledge and wisdom of God.

●Someone in your life hurt you, you choose to show them the grace of forgiveness.

Life is full of all kinds of opportunities for us to choose faith over feelings. Our church would be a totally different place if we chose faith over feelings. If we chose faith over feelings in discipleship, we would make time to invest in others lives. If we chose faith over feelings in our witnessing, we’d be sharing the Gospel and building gospel relationships; if we chose faith over feelings in our giving to the church, we’d have no problem meeting our budget.

Big Idea: God wants us to choose faith over feelings.

As you leave today, I’d like you to think about your life and ask the question—where do you need to choose faith over feelings? And I encourage you to commit to doing that. Commit to working on one or two or three areas where you need to choose faith over feelings. Maybe you need to get some help—get an accountability partner or someone who can have a Bible study with you.

Big Idea: God wants us to choose faith over feelings.

 Let’s be a people who walk by faith and pursue a life of faith over a life of feelings!