“Your thinking drives your feelings, which drives your choices, which determines your character.”

This statement drives to the heart of the battle within our current Western culture, which wants to reverse the order of thinking and feelings. If I feel it, it must be true.

Jesus’ in the Garden of Gethsemane fought this battle. He was feeling depressed (Matt. 26:37 – “troubled”), which led to the thought of not going to the cross. Yet, He got the order back in line with the truth and said, “Not My will, but Your will be done despite how I feel.”  

No matter how much we hear the opposite, Scripture, the source of truth, says that we become more like Jesus through changing the way we think (Rom. 12:2), not by changing the way we feel.

Let me illustrate. Let’s say you and your 14-year-old son are at restaurant when he asks permission to go the bathroom. You nod your head and he’s off.

Five minutes later your waiter tells you, “You should see what your teenager is doing. He’s stuffing toilet paper down the toilet that is flooding the bathroom floor. You should be ashamed.”

What are you feeling at that moment? Incredulous that anyone would say that, a little embarrassed or a tad bit angry, maybe all the above?

You quickly head to the bathroom to discover it’s not your son! In fact, he’s using the toilet behind the locked stall! Now what are you feeling? You get the point. Change your thinking, you change the feeling and choice.

As followers of Christ, we can’t make decisions based on our feelings if we want to be more like Him. Feelings, though real, are not the truth that will set you free from the behavior ruining your life.

Change is not easy, which Scripture never said it would. In fact, it reveals that it will be a fight! Your freedom is a battle worth fighting, regardless of how you feel at the moment.