What If I Don't Feel Saved?
If you are a follower of Jesus, you have probably had times in your life when you have experienced an emotional high in your spiritual life. You know what I'm talking about; those times when you are on fire for God and you can feel it deep in your bones. The feeling is similar to (possibly even more intense than) what someone experiences on their wedding day. It would be an incredible thing to experience this every single day as we walk with God wouldn't it?
But the truth is that some days are nothing like what I just described.
Some days - even months or years - our emotions are gone. We aren't angry at God, confused, depressed, frustrated or anything of the sort; we are numb. These are the times that we don't really feel anything at all in our spiritual life. Even though we are going through the motions of our faith: praying, reading Scripture, in fellowship with other believers, attending Bible studies, leading Bible studies, and even pastoring churches.
Yet, as far as our emotions are concerned, we feel more alive sitting in traffic than we do in our relationship with Jesus.
It may sound as if I am painting a judgmental picture of your life, but I am actually describing my own personal experience with this. I've been in this exact place numerous times in my life. The best way to describe it is that you don't feel saved. To be clear, this is distinct from doubting your salvation; though doubt is something that often stems from this experience. It's a time when you know that you're saved, you know God is real and you know you're following Him as best you can, but you just don't feel anything anymore as it relates to your spiritual life.
So what do we do about it? What's the answer?
Don't let your feelings determine truth
I don't feel like getting out of bed most mornings; I feel like my bed will serve me better than the torture of waking up, working out, spending time with God and going about my day. The truth of the matter is that the best thing I can do is forget my feelings and get out of bed. If you don't feel saved, you must remember that your feelings do not determine truth; preach to yourself that you are a child of the King and nobody can change that - not even you and your feelings. Romans 8:38-39 - "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So preach the beauty of the Gospel to yourself; truth has a way to stir our hearts and even our emotions. As J.D. Greear says: "don’t feel your way into your beliefs; believe your way into your feelings."
Go to The Scriptures
In a world that gets most of it's information from Google, it can be hard to train ourselves to search the Scriptures first. It also may seem strange that I'm telling you that you will rekindle your fire by reading a book; but I hope you know that the Bible is no ordinary book. Look at what Jesus said in John 5:39 - "You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!"
The Bible is not powerful because it's a really old book that Christians read all the time. The Bible is powerful because it was "breathed out by God" (2 Tim. 3:16) and it points us to Jesus. Your feelings about God will come and go, but the truths about God are eternal and they are found in Scripture; seek and you will find. You and I must believe that God is capable of using His Word to stir our hearts back to Him and kindle in us the fire our souls long for.
Confess your Sin
If you read Psalm 51, you will see very clearly that often we do not feel saved because sin has taken our joy. David cries out to God in this Psalm to "restore the joy of his salvation." But first, he confesses his sin.
Yes, God forgives all our sin and covers us with His grace. But we must confess our sin (1 John 1:9) in order to receive that forgiveness. It is very possible that you don't feel saved because sin has taken your joy away. Run to Jesus, confess your sin, receive His grace, and let Him restore your joy.
Don't Give Up
This one seems obvious doesn't it? But as humans, we are driven by our emotions. I know that consistent diet and exercise will make me feel better, but right now I really feel like I want some ice-cream and Netflix.
You may know that Jesus is worth all your affection, but maybe you don't feel like that's true right now - DON'T GIVE UP! Pursue Him anyway! I promise that He will show up again. I promise that the God who made you knows what makes you tick, and He knows how to stir up your emotions again to feel that love for Him. But He also is asking you to believe that love is not an emotion, and that truth is not determined by how you feel.
If you can learn to love God when you don't feel like it, you will only grow closer to Him and your love for Him will only grow. Because it is then that you are learning to love based on truth, not feelings.
