Bible verses on Following your "Feelings"

[MarcoPolo]

I’m in dialogue with a non-Catholic friend who in short, doesn’t like the Catholic Church because she does not feel comfortable with it (i.e. the mass, the prayers, Tradition, the Pope, etc…). She does Bible study with other non-Catholics who are not fond of the Catholic Church.

I stressed to this person that her goal should be “the truth,” not what “you feel.” I said that if she wanted to reject the Church she has to do so because she can say why it’s “wrong”. However, she cannot articulate why any of the things the Church teaches that we have discussed are in error. She said she can’t quite say why just yet because she has only embraced Christianity and studied the Bible for a year (yet “knows” the Catholics are wrong).

So I am a long way from anywhere with her, but does anyone know of Bible passages that elude to how we should not seek our “feelings” ?

 

[Jennifer123]

Well, the heart is symbolic for our feelings, and this immediately came to mind:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? " Jer 17:9

Pray that your friend will grow in her love for Christ. It may be too soon to ask her to embrace Catholicism especially given that she is in a faith community that is handing her their own misguided interpretations that they themselves have been exposed.

I would just insist to her though as a friend to stick to the things you two can agree on, that Jesus is Lord, and go on from there. Maybe you can be the Catholic example that she needs to combat these influences of her friends. If she insists on bringing up these misinterpretations and beliefs, then insist that she reads some CA tracts!!

 

[MarcoPolo]

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? " Jer 17:9

Thanks so much! Anyone else know passages about following one’s own feelings?

 

[Matt_g18]

I too have am having a problem with this. My Girlfriend left the Church a couple of months before i met her and im now trying to get her to understand that it was the Catholic Church that came first and all that stuff non catholics told her is false.

One of her reasons is that she “feels” closer to God in her new Christian Church that “follows” the teachings of the early church.

 

[joshua_b]

Well, the heart is symbolic for our feelings, and this immediately came to mind:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? " Jer 17:9

A relevant post, and I certainly do not want to detract from it in any way, but to ancient Jews, the heart was not symbolic of feelings, it was symbolic of and attributed to intellect. Jewish, and resultingly, New Testament theology, does not equate faith with “feelings”. “If you believe in me, you will keep my commandments” comes to mind here. When the old testament Scriptures refer to loving God with your whole heart, they were not talking about some sort of feel-good state of being or any sort of “personal relationship”, they were talking about showing love of God through a willful recognition that God was sovereign and we should subjugate ourselves to His law, recognizing that His law was perfect.

If we love God, then we make a conscious effort to conform to His will, primarily that we attain salvation through the means He gave us (the Church He established while here on earth…that would be the Catholic one). Maybe I wouldn’t approach a friend with those words, but that really is the crux of the matter.

And, of course, above all else, PRAY. Faith is a gift, attainable only through the Grace of God, and not you, nor I, nor anyone else on this earth can do anything more than plant the seeds.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Ok, I found some verses on my own after some time to add to what was already provided!

Jude 1:18-20
They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 81:11-12
But my people would not listen to me;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own devices.

 

[DaveBj]

Thanks so much! Anyone else know passages about following one’s own feelings?

II Cor 5:7–“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

“Sight” could be expanded to mean all human senses, and the feelings that are aroused by them.

When I started studying Catholicism 3.5 years ago, my “feelings” were telling me to stay away. However, I decided to follow the truth, and when I followed the truth, my feelings came along.

DaveBj

 

[mschrank]

I wouldn’t say the heart is the intellect. The heart is the deepest part of you, your intellect is part of it. The closest thing to it would be actually ‘essence’ (as in the counterpart to existence). It is the sum total of who you are, and it is what survives death and is judged. It is the bedrock of your being.

Also, ‘feelings’ may not of even existed back then, the concept of following your feelings or a feeling being important wasn’t really part of ANE (ancient near east) culture. That’s why novels weren’t possible as a literary genre and most writings chronicled what people did and not what they thought or how they felt.

 

[jonk]

she has only embraced Christianity and studied the Bible for a year (yet “knows” the Catholics are wrong).

Well, since she’s just embraced Christianity, I’d be happy for her. She’s just discovered the truth, even though it is incomplete. The last thing on her mind is that she or her friends could be wrong on anything.

My formerly very anti-Catholic friend who didn’t even consider Catholicism to be Christian warmed to my faith after a time. I would always enthusiastically affirm whatever he said that was true and try and focus on the common ground. I’d always ask him what he learnt in church and would be very enthusiastic (and I genuinely am) about his faith.

He now sees Catholicism as just another Protestant denomination but with very “weird” beliefs on Mary. He clearly sees the commonalities of our two faiths and now is getting interested in the distinctives. He has recently admitted that he disagrees with his pastor’s beliefs that Catholicism is not Christian and that he thinks that purgatory really is alluded to in the Bible and that it makes a lot of sense.

It just takes time.

 

[joshua_b]

I wouldn’t say the heart is the intellect.
… the concept of following your feelings or a feeling being important wasn’t really part of ANE (ancient near east) culture. That’s why novels weren’t possible as a literary genre and most writings chronicled what people did and not what they thought or how they felt.

Let me start off by saying neither would I, but this was offered to me by a Jewish Rabbi, and he told me that was the way Jew’s of the time would have read it…just as we today associate the “heart” with love or romance, or even as you put it “essence”, they would have made a distinct correlation with intellect and reason.

The second part of this post of yours pretty much sums up the impression that I got from my exchange with this person…to ANE culture, “feelings” were of little regard, especially in contrast to reason.

 

[Nita]

Couldn’t find anything that literally spoke about following one’s feelings, but here are some additional ones about “heart”, “insight” etc. They show the unreliability of our own desires/thinking etc.

Numbers 15:39 “and it shall be to you a tassel to look upon and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to go after wantonly.”

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.

Jeremiah 7:24 But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubborness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.

Jeremiah 9:13-14 Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.

Jeremiah 16:12 …every one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me;

Jeremiah 18:12 But they say “That is in vain! We will follow our own plans and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.”

Nita

 

[Pax]

This verse may be on the money:

2 Tim 4:3
For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Couldn’t find anything that literally spoke about following one’s feelings, but here are some additional ones about “heart”, “insight” etc.

This verse may be on the money:

Marvelous! Thanks everyone who has helped me out here.

And here’s a few MORE I came upon in my own continued study.

Galatians 5:17-25 The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; the two are directly opposed. This is why you do not do what your will intends.

Jude 1:18-20 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 81:11-12 But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

 

[Jennifer123]

The second part of this post of yours pretty much sums up the impression that I got from my exchange with this person…to ANE culture, “feelings” were of little regard, especially in contrast to reason.

Interesting stuff, thanks for the insight. It saddens me though to see how much we rely on feelings in our culture and how obvious it is now how much we don’t rely on “reason”!!

 

[Nita]

'“Heart” in Scripture often has to do with “desire” (understood as something totally separate from “feeling”). Eg. To “love the Lord your God with your whole heart, …” would be to desire to please and serve Him in every way.

I did a Bible word search on “heart”. Here are just two examples where heart is connected with desire.:
*Ps 20:4 May he grant you your heart’s desire,…
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, …" *(example of wicked desires)

There are also passages that connect it to intellectual activity:
Matthew 13:15 “lest they…understand with their heart”
Mark 11:23 “…and does not doubt in his heart, but believes…”
Luke 2:19 “pondering them in her heart”

It is interesting to read all the Scripture passages.

Nita

 

[Janet_S]

John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote many sermons on this topic (stressing the importance of religious “feelings” without sound doctrine). This quote is from his sermon:

The Humiliation of the Eternal Son
newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume3/sermon12.html

“Meanwhile, the religious world little thinks whither its opinions are leading; and will not discover that it is adoring a mere abstract name or a vague creation of the mind for the Ever-living Son, till the defection of its members from the faith startle it, and teach it that the so-called religion of the heart, without orthodoxy of doctrine, is but the warmth of a corpse, real for a time, but sure to fail.”

Here are a few more of Newman’s sermons about religious feelings/emotions available online:

The Religious Use of Excited Feelings:
newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume1/sermon9.html

Religious Emotion:
newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume1/sermon14.html

 

[dessert]

If we relided only on our feelings and didn’t use reason, which God wants us to do; believe and think, we would end in despair.

Examples; I’d like to know what all thinks of these.

If one laid out in the sun of summer for hours and felt good and the warmth was satisfying, but ignored the danger of overexposure, which are the rules of too much sun, just for the feelings then one is not using reason.

If one knew how to swim well so started out into the ocean and swam as far as felt good but forgot to figure they needed to swim back then that is not reason.

Our feelings can lead us to despair, it is our faith that God is there, as the one saying goes would Jesus do this, or WWJD
What would Jesus do?

 

[cora_cobb]

I’m in dialogue with a non-Catholic friend who in short, doesn’t like the Catholic Church because she does not feel comfortable with it (i.e. the mass, the prayers, Tradition, the Pope, etc…). She does Bible study with other non-Catholics who are not fond of the Catholic Church.

I stressed to this person that her goal should be “the truth,” not what “you feel.” I said that if she wanted to reject the Church she has to do so because she can say why it’s “wrong”. However, she cannot articulate why any of the things the Church teaches that we have discussed are in error. She said she can’t quite say why just yet because she has only embraced Christianity and studied the Bible for a year (yet “knows” the Catholics are wrong).

So I am a long way from anywhere with her, but does anyone know of Bible passages that elude to how we should not seek our “feelings” ?

 

[cora_cobb]

Hi, since I am a relatively new convert to Catholicism I will give you my opinions. I believe first of all that it takes a long long time, love and patience to lead a person away from the only religion they have ever known. I realize that your friend is a new Christian, but the more you pressure her the more damage will be done. Live the faith in all aspects of your life. Gentlyand kindly expain things when you can and never be argumentative or critical of her faith.

I can say this with assurance because I had a Catholic friend who for over 20 years did all the above for me. It never appeared that she was trying to convert me but her life, comments and sweet way of teaching me opened my mind to new possibilities. As a result I was lead by The Holy Spirit to find answeres to many questions about my lifelong faith. It took time but I could see holes in what I was taught and had many ahhh experiences. I love my newfound faith and am so grateful for the love of a friend.

As far as feelings go, I had many. I could’t understand what was happening to me and was confused, angry at times and overwhelmed as well. Once you’ve been taught that something is wrong and you accept it as truth it is very hard to accept another way.

Be patient pray for guidance and the right words to say. Whether or not your friend allows her feeling to guide her always remember that The Holy Spirit as part of The Trinity has all the power. He can and will overide her feelings and confusion.

Don’t give up, it may take years.

Cora

 

[cora_cobb]

A relevant post, and I certainly do not want to detract from it in any way, but to ancient Jews, the heart was not symbolic of feelings, it was symbolic of and attributed to intellect. Jewish, and resultingly, New Testament theology, does not equate faith with “feelings”. “If you believe in me, you will keep my commandments” comes to mind here. When the old testament Scriptures refer to loving God with your whole heart, they were not talking about some sort of feel-good state of being or any sort of “personal relationship”, they were talking about showing love of God through a willful recognition that God was sovereign and we should subjugate ourselves to His law, recognizing that His law was perfect.

If we love God, then we make a conscious effort to conform to His will, primarily that we attain salvation through the means He gave us (the Church He established while here on earth…that would be the Catholic one). Maybe I wouldn’t approach a friend with those words, but that really is the crux of the matter.

And, of course, above all else, PRAY. Faith is a gift, attainable only through the Grace of God, and not you, nor I, nor anyone else on this earth can do anything more than plant the seeds.