More Than a Feeling

I love being married. I’ve only been at it for about 5 months, so I know I have a lot of surprises in store, but so far it’s been amazing how God has blessed both my life and my wife’s life through His wonderful institution. I love seeing her next to me every morning, I love coming home to her every evening, and I love talking to her for hours on end. Sharing our lives together feels so right and natural that it seems there’s no way God didn’t design this.

However, there are a lot of people out there who are doing things that feel right and natural. The reason I know that our marriage is a good and holy thing isn’t just because it feels right, but because it is biblical. It is part of God’s plan for a man and woman to become one and to pursue Him together for the rest of their lives.

A lot of people in America today think that following the Bible is an old-fashioned and foolish way to make decisions. What’s more important is what feels right and natural. Albert Mohler does a great job of describing this from a big-picture perspective in this issue’s Q&A. But many of us experience this reality on a very personal level every day.

I have a very good friend who is thinking about moving in with his girlfriend. He’s in love with her, and his decision is based on the fact that being with her a lot feels right. But his Christian family is horrified at the fact that he’s contemplating this, and it’s causing a rift among them. I’m praying for him to do the right thing in the end, but the effects of his making decisions based on feelings and not God’s way are already causing pain in his life.

The reason we follow the Bible isn’t just because our religion tells us that we have to. Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God revealed to us. If God designed the world, then He knows the best way to live it. Following the way he tells us to live in the Bible isn’t an old-fashioned way—it is the best and only way.

Obviously none of us will follow this way all the time, but the more we can live the way He tells us to, the closer we get to bringing heaven to earth. Here’s praying that we can all live with the love, discipline, peace and humility that God describes in His Word.