Faith Is Not a Feeling

Jesus said that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you’ll move mountains (Matt. 17:20). If you’ve ever seen a mustard seed, you know how tiny it is. Yet, having faith this small can effect such huge change. Faith must, therefore, be very important and must also be power­ful and strong enough to do something superhuman. However, just as a mustard seed can grow into a large tree (Matt. 13:31, 32), our faith should grow and not remain static.

Indeed, we need a measure of faith in order to have a relationship with God in the first place (see Rom. 12:3).

We must first understand that faith is not a material thing; it’s a human response prompted by the Holy Spirit. God is the gracious initiator, who, through the Holy Spirit, draws us to Himself when we allow Him to do so (Jer. 31:3). We’re saved by grace, through faith, which is a response to God’s grace given to us through Jesus’ death. We are saved because we believe in God as a result of His grace. This lies at the heart of having a relationship with Him.

Next, we must remember that faith is not a feeling. “Many do not exercise that faith which it is their privilege and duty to exercise, often waiting for that feeling which faith alone can bring. Feeling is not faith. . . . Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful feeling and the blessing are God’s to give.”—Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 72.

Some people might feel as though they don’t have faith because they don’t feel close to God or are not what they should be as a Christian. But faith is about believing and trusting God, not only in the good times but in darkness or in a storm, or even when you can’t fully understand what is going on in your life.

Feelings should never dominate our religious experience or our relationship with God. It’s precisely when we think we’re distant from God that we need to exercise our faith and call on Him (as did the father in Mark 9:24).

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

My head is weary this morning. Mist and clouds hang over my mind; but the suggestions of the enemy to distrust the Lord shall not be cherished. Now is my time to fight the good fight of faith. Now is the very occasion that needs the steady faith that works by love and purifies my soul. I seek the Lord more earnestly. . . .
The message was brought to Asa by the Lord’s prophet: “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:2; cf. Jeremiah 29:11-13). My heart goes out in faith. Faith is not feeling; faith is not sight. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
I spoke in the Rechabite’s hall at 3:00 P.M. from Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I believe the promise is for me, and I appropriate the same personally. The promise itself is of no value unless I fully believe that He that has made the promise is abundantly able to fulfill, and infinite in power to do all that He has said.
The message the Lord gave me was a message of faith. We cannot dishonor God more than in distrusting His Word. Feeling is not at all reliable. A religion fed and kept alive by emotions is valueless. God’s Word is the foundation upon which our hopes may safely rest, and in the confidence we have in the Word of God we are established, strengthened, settled, riveted to the Eternal Rock. Then the prayer of Paul will be answered:
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9, 10).—This Day With God, p. 156.