ALVATION IS an act of faith, not of feeling.  Faith overcomes where the heart or the mind tells us otherwise.

There are many times in the life of even every mature Christian that he or she, “feels,” inadequate before God, separated from Him either through sin, or through, lack of, “feeling,” either their salvation, or the presence of God, through doubt, or for any one of a multitude of different reasons.  Jesus certainly didn’t, “feel,” like going to the cross,

42 Saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.

43 And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him.

44 And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Luke 22:42-44

Even Jesus didn’t, “feel,” saved, at at least one point in His earthly life!

39 And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads,

40 And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

41 Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said,

42 He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.

43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God.

44 The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth.

45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

Matt. 27:39-46

But… even though He didn’t, “feel,” saved, Jesus maintained His faith in God!

46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the Ghost.

Luke 23:46

God is greater than our heart!

We know that we are saved!  That is something that God put within our hearts!  If our heart tells us otherwise we should remember what is the nature of that heart… or at least what it’s nature was before it was regenerated!  Either way, it’s old nature still haunts us, and is still attacked by the sin that’s all around us!

But praise God, that the Maker and Saviour of that heart now owns us and Is doing a good work in us!

26 "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool:. . ."

Proverbs 28:26

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jer. 17:7

19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

I John 3:19-21

Salvations is, “faith,” not, “feeling!”

Sometimes, just after a person becomes born-again, God will give him or her a sense of His Presence in their life.  They may, “feel,” Him near them, or they may simply have a greater consciousness of Him.  Or sometimes a person may develop this, “feeling,” quite a while after they have become born-again.  (Many people may never experience this, “feeling.”  This is not abnormal at all!)

Often, however, when one who has had this, “feeling,” stops having this, “feeling,” (which, also, is absolutely normal) he or she will become worried, thinking that God is no longer near to them, or that, sometimes, they are no longer saved.  Quite the opposite, however, is most likely true.  When a Christian has matured in the Lord to the point at which they are no longer, “baby Christians,” God will often remove from them the sense of, “feeling close to Him.”  They will now be required by God to exercise a greater faith in Him.  This is comparable to the idea of a growing infant’s being no longer carried everywhere by his mother; he may indeed feel abandoned by her, as he’s now being encouraged to walk, rather than to be carried, but he rather maturing, growing out of the, “baby,” stage.  The fact that the child is no longer being carried in his mother’s arms is in no way an indication that he’s becoming less intimate with her.  He is, rather, getting to the stage of being able to work with her in life, of being able to understand her better, of being more of a friend with her.

So it is with the Christian.  When he or she has matured past the, “baby Christian,” stage God will start feeding him with the, “meat,” of faith and Christian maturity;  having grown this far, He will now be able to trust more in His God, and thereby accomplish more in his own Spiritual life, and in ministry to others.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

I Cor. 3:2

20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

I Cor. 14:20

In other words, if you no longer, “feel,” the Presence of God in your life, and if you have been doing your best to maintain your Spiritual walk, and are not sinning, REJOICE!  You have just been graduated by God up to the next level of Spiritual education… you have graduated from that lower level in which you, “felt,” His Presence!

31 But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He Is, and that He Is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Heb. 11:6