Faith Doesn’t Feel Good

When something doesn’t feel good, or we don’t like to do it, we try to avoid it at all costs. In my house, the chore that just doesn’t feel good is laundry. My husband and I will do so many things to avoid putting up laundry. Throwing it in the washer or dryer is no big deal. But putting it up? That takes time and effort. Overall, it’s just not a good time.

We want to spend our time doing what feels good to us, what is fun. No one is EVER excited about doing chores unless it makes them feel good.

Faith is a lot like that at first too. Faith doesn’t feel good at first when we step out in it. If feels like a fight we don’t want to be in, but we are in it anyway. Yet, the silver lining of faith, unlike with laundry, is that we know God has ordained whatever we are doing by trusting him.

Hebrews Chapter 11 gives us SO many examples of faith!

But the first verse actually defines it!

“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.”

When we step into the ring to fight the battle that God has put before us, we can have FAITH that we are going to win. Even if we think we have lost, we’ve won!

Let’s look at some other amazing examples in this chapter. Verse 7 tells us all about Noah building the arc on faith. Think about all of the things that go into building an arc. Yes, there was the physical piece, like chopping the wood, nailing in the pieces, measuring things, carrying things, which all took a toll on Noah’s body. But have you ever thought about the emotional piece? How many people were probably making fun of Noah for building this giant arc? And he really has no way of logically defending himself. He just has to keep saying that he is doing it because God said to. His family probably looked at him strangely too. His son-in-laws probably thought he was crazy and didn’t help him. But Noah did it anyway, BY FAITH.

Verses 11-12 describe Abraham and Sarah trying to have children, and failing for a VERY LONG time. It wasn’t until after Abraham was over 100 years old that Sarah finally gave him a son! God promised that Abraham would be the father of nations, and at 89 he didn’t have any children! How much faith must it have taken Abraham to believe that he would eventually have a son? How crazy did Sarah think that Abraham was?

This chapter is filled with so many other great instances of faith. Do you know what they all have in common? Before the blessing, there was brokenness. Before the faith came the failure.

Stepping out in faith doesn’t feel good! It isn’t until looking back that you can appreciate the battles that you have fought through faith. Yet, to fight them, and win them, we have to make the conscious choice to keep stepping out in faith even when it looks like we are crazy, or that we might lose.

“By faith, these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weaknesses was turned into strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from the dead.” – Hebrews 11:33-25

All of the miracles that you read about in this chapter start with the same thing “By faith.”

You will never get out of your battle if you don’t start walking into it with the confidence that faith gives you.

With our anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and all of the other mental health stuff, we know that we walk into battle every minute of every day.

Are you walking into those battles with faith or fear? Are you putting on your armor, or are you going ahead and lying down before the battle even starts?

A lot of us have this idea that fighting a battle by faith will mean that the battle will end ‘perfectly’. That it will have a clear start and end date. But that’s just not how these battles with mental health work.

I think back to when I was at the lowest point in my Eating Disorder. I was only eating 2 foods, and those were only eaten in severe restriction. I was trapped by anxiety and intense fear in my mind. I literally couldn’t think straight. I knew that my thoughts were so messed up, but I had no idea what to do.

By faith, I took the first step and told a friend.

By faith, I went to that first therapy appointment.

By faith, I went to the treatment facility to see if I qualified for help.

By faith, I started treatment.

By faith, I sat down at that first meal.

That sounds like a good story doesn’t it? Now, let me tell you the real one.

By faith, I cried in agony about how scared I was to eat a piece of dry toast at work one day.

By faith, I asked a friend for help and she drove me to the therapy appointment in tears that day.

By faith, she took me to the treatment facility, where in shame and fear I let my guard down and told one of the therapists everything that I had been experiencing.

By faith, I walked into that treatment facility, scared out of my mind. Scared of the judgment from the other patients, scared of the food they would make me eat, scared of the emotions that this all would make me feel.

By faith, I looked at my first meal and immediately started sobbing hysterically in a panic attack over cheese toast and broccoli. I had to be escorted out of the meal room and taken to a private room to calm down before trying the meal again. By faith, I made it through a few bites of the toast.

See, when we look at the details, we can see that faith doesn’t feel good. When we just tell the highlights, it looks easy. Faith feels like anxiety, fear, stress, sadness, overwhelm and exhaustion. Faith will wear you out. But through faith you can keep walking towards to destination without letting these emotions stop you from going through the hard things.

Doing something by faith alone is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. You won’t want to, but you’ll have to. Whether it’s because you have to do it or you might die (ME in ED treatment), or you have to do it because the Father told you to (me with this blog!), stepping out in faith is an emotional roller coaster of events that we most likely don’t even want to do in the first place.

But the good news is that by trusting Jesus, I was able to take all of those steps of faith. I’m not going to call them ‘small steps.’ At the time, each of these things felt like giant leaps of faith.

And that’s exactly what they were, giant leaps. God isn’t going to give us the entire picture with all of it completely worked out for us. He is going to give us the steps we need to overcome as we need to overcome them. I wasn’t ready for full recovery when I walked into that treatment facility. I needed to learn those emotional, physical and spiritual lessons before I was ready for recovery.

It starts with the steps that seem small, or crazy, to others. It starts with these faithful steps that will lead us to a fulfilled future that is Christ-centered and God-led.

Start taking those steps of faith that don’t feel good. At the other end is a beautiful blessing. A blessing that you’ll look back on to recall how faithful God is in your times of need. This trial that you are in right now is a major stepping stone towards the future that God has for you. But we get free will. It’s your choice. Are you going to trust Him in faith with the steps that don’t feel good? Are you willing to take those steps anyway? Are you willing to trust that God has it all worked out? Are you willing to listen and obey Him? Even in this, He is teaching you. Take the lessons, learn the faithful way of the Lord, and see the blessings outpoured onto your life.

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I am always praying for you,