"Feelings, all I have are feelings"

We live an an age and society that emphasizes personal feelings. Sometimes it seems the emphasis is beyond responsibility. For example: Why did you do that?...Because I felt like it. When someone says I have to follow my heart, they are basically telling me to follow my feelings. And there have been times I have done that with devastating consequences. It is normal to say: This is how I feel so I will... Even our Christianity is emotion-driven. There is an old Puritan prayer that contains much needed wisdom:

Lord,
Help me to honor Thee by believing before I feel,
For great is the sin if I make feeling a cause of faith.

One of the best ways to get feelings in line is from Hebrews 11. There is a little phrase found in that chapter that describes the motivation of their actions: by faith... Notice there how often it says that these people, who were as flawed as the rest of us, lived by the commands and promises of Scripture rather than their personal feelings. I suppose if Noah decided not to build the ark until he felt like it, it probably would never have been done and he would have been in disobedience to God. The heroes of faith in that chapter believed before they felt. The desperate need among Christians today is a return and commitment to the Scriptures as the objective standard of truth rather than constantly changing and unreliable feelings. If we follow our feelings, we will usually not follow Christ because He asks us in Scripture to do things that are uncomfortable and difficult. But He also promises to be with us when we obey even if we do not feel He is there. Our feelings are real but they must be controlled by the Word of God or we end up doing "what is right in our own eyes."