Faith is trusting in God, but we are not called to have blind faith – we are called to have faith in God’s Word. Christian faith does not depend upon our feelings, which are always changing, but on the facts of what God has done and promised.

‘Imagine being lost is the dessert and having a compass with you. You could do one of two things: You could rely solely on your sense of direction to tell you which way to go or you could rely on the needle of your compass pointing north. No matter how strongly you ‘felt’ about which direction to take, you’d be stupid to trust in your feelings over and above your compass. Why? Well, because our feelings go up and down depending on our mood. Feelings are important, but we must not rely only on our feelings. We must instead rely on God’s promises which do not change; we must rely on the Word of God… because God does not change. North is always north.’

Let me illustrate further. ‘Imagine three men walking along the top of a narrow wall. The first man is called FACTS, the second FAITH and the last, FEELINGS. As long as the middle man, FAITH, keeps his eyes on FACTS, he can walk securely and steadily on the wall. But if he turns around and keeps looking over his shoulder for FEELINGS, he starts to wobble and feel insecure. Similarly, in the Christian faith, solid faith is based on the facts of Jesus as learned in the Bible. If we go too much by our feelings, our faith will always be unsteady and weak.’

[Note: Christianity Explained, New Malden, Surrey: The Good Book Company (1985), p.55]

John Dickson, Hanging in There, Matthias Media (1991), p76