Feelings

Bill Lambert

We’re told that love of God is not so much a matter of feelings but a continuing act of will.  Feelings in your relationship with God are the icing on the cake. That may be true, but I want to have my cake with icing on it.

It takes a lot of willpower to love an infinite being beyond our comprehension, and I admire the Jews and Muslims who try to love a distant and infinite creator with all their heart, mind and strength.

Thinking about God in terms of the Trinity helps a lot.

It’s much easier to bring to mind an all loving Father figure, a wise and knowing Holy Spirit and a Son who is one of ourselves.

The fact remains that faith is a gift of God. For me it has to be,  because the infinity of God’s love in creating humanity and then sending his Son to die for humanity are beyond my understanding.  So the first thing is to ask God to strengthen our faith.

Now to feelings… Some try to evoke a response in themselves by thinking of God’s love for us and the sacrifice of his Son on the cross. But I find it difficult to meditate too much on the crucifixion because of a personal horror of such awful cruelty.

I find it easier to feel an emotion of praise and adoration of God for all the glory and variety I see in creation, and the innocent beauty of little children.

I guess this is a kind of transference of emotions … from the seen to the unseen.  Instead of thinking of God and trying to love Him, we first evoke feelings of love in our hearts and then focus them on God.

I can readily summon feelings of love for my father, and then transfer that emotion to our Heavenly Father. Feelings for a brother or friend can be focussed on Jesus. For me, the love for my wife can be transferred to the Holy Spirit.

But God created each one of us uniquely different, and every one of us has an individual relationship with him. What works for me may not work for you. The important thing is to think about your relationship with God and how you can enhance it.

The rest is faith.