day no. 15,658: feelings don't do anything

Be instant in season, out of season. — 2 Timothy 4:2

"Many of us suffer from the morbid tendency to be instant ‘out of season.’ The season does not refer to time, but to us. ‘Be instant in season, out of season,’ whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. There are unemployables in the spiritual domain, spiritually decrepit people, who refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

One of the great snares of the Christian worker is to make a fetish of his rare moments. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you say — ‘Now I will always be like this for God.’ No, you will not, God will take care you are not. Those times are the gift of God entirely. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best, you become an intolerable drag on God; you will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously inspired. If you make a god of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life and never come back until you do the duty that lies nearest, and have learned not to make a fetish of your rare moments." -- Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest

When we are riding a spiritual high, we feel like we could and would do anything for Jesus, but when we are feeling that way we typically sit back and just enjoy soaking in the feeling. When we are experiencing a spiritual low, we long for the days where we felt like we could or would do anything for Jesus. Either way, if we orient our spirituality around highs and lows, nothing gets done for Jesus - whether we feel like it or not.

At our best, we only imagine we could or would do anything; and at our worst, we can't imagine wanting to do anything ever again. Feelings-based, experientially-emphasized spirituality never amounts to anything. It can't... and it doesn't really want to. It just wants the experience of inspiration back without ever actually aspiring to do anything more than that with it.