Feelings Does Not Equal Identity

We are not our feelings.

We are not our feelings at all.

If you stay around in Alcoholics Anonymous for any length of time, however, the strong that individuals form between their identities and their feelings becomes strong.

And deadly.

People feel good, or they feel bad, but the person's standing in Christ cannot be changed.

Now I have a better understanding of being established in righteousness, one which had not made much sense to me before:

"In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee." (Isaiah 54: 14)

In righteousness we are established. Notice that the verse does not say "You will establish yourself in righteousness."

Then who establishes us? God does, through His Son!

"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 21Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 22Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (2 Corinthians 1: 20-22)

Christ is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1: 30), and He became sin that we would be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

We do not establish ourselves, and for the longest time, I kept trying to fix how I felt so that I would feel established in Him, or to make sure that He was not far away from me.

For the past year, I have found myself taking great offense when people would focus on my feelings, asking me why I felt bad, or trying to get my not to feel bad.

It does not matter how I feel, but what we feel merely registers something that we are thinking. The answer is not to fix the feelings, but to fix our minds on what Jesus has done and what God the Father says about us.

Every time that I rebuffed someone's "invitation" to talk about how I felt, I actually felt better. There was a peace which overcame me.

For years, I was taught that I had to  talk about my feelings, I had to do something about how I felt.

The reality is that w are not defined by our feelings. We are not in ourselves, but rather we are in Christ.

It does not matter how anyone feels. What matters is what we are thinking, and what we are thinking can be duly (or unduly) influenced by who we are.

Here we find the true path to maturity in our times.