It’s Faith—Not Feelings

Why is it that someone could be radically converted (or seemingly so) and passionate about their new faith and then, without warning, just give up? They seemed to have had the most amazing conversion ever, but all of a sudden, they just bailed and walked away. How could that happen?

I would suggest that person never was converted to begin with. It is not about the emotion of a moment; it is about the test of time. If a person is a real Christian, he or she will continue on—though not flawlessly and not perfectly. It is even possible for a person who is a Christian to go astray for a time.

But if someone is a real believer, he or she always will come back. If they walk away and never return, they never were believers. As 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us."

It may be that they built their faith on an emotional experience, and there can be emotion in conversion, though not always. But you can’t build your life on emotion, because emotions come and go. A person who expects every day of the Christian life to be an emotional rush will be disappointed when they wake up some morning and feel nothing. That is when it is time to start growing up and walking by faith, not by feelings.

Romans 1:17 says, "The just shall live by faith." Yet some build their entire relationship with God on emotional experience, and when the emotions are not there, they give up. They built their life on the wrong foundation.