Feelings

I'm an emotional person. I'm sentimental. I miss people when they're not around - even if only for a short time. I feel a lot.
I feel lonely. I feel sad. I feel love. I feel whatever.
Feelings are not bad. They are a gift, and proof that God Himself feels, as we are made in His image. Feelings are not unimportant nuisances that should be ignored. However, nor should they dictate the way we live.
I have found that if I put my focus on my feelings, they become my truth. Unfortunately, my feelings are not always accurately lined up with real, biblical truth.
If I feel lonely, I distance myself from others, for fear that they don't want to be around me anyway.
If I feel sad, I tend to feel sad for days at a time, wallowing in the fact that nothing seems to go the way I plan or think it should go.
If I feel love, I feel it deeply. I get caught up in it as if nothing else matters.
The truth is though, that whether or not I feel lonely, I am never alone. Yes, we are created as relational beings. It benefits us to have a friend "with skin on." But no matter my physical circumstances, God has promised to be my friend. To listen when I talk. To know the yearnings of my heart when I don't know how to express them. And the truth is, if He intended me to have relationships, He will bring along those relationships. He never meant for me to be alone - physically or spiritually. But He does mean for me to be fully content in His presence alone.
The truth is, God has given me the joy of salvation. Sadness is just a feeling, not a state of being. No matter what else is going on around me, I should be able to remember the price that's been paid for me, and rejoice. Bad things happen. People let us down. Loved ones pass away. BUT... I have been saved! Nothing should mean more than that.
The truth is, love is not a feeling; it is an action. Love is knowing the what Christ accomplished for me, and desperately longing for others to know it. Love is so much more than wanting to be with someone, and wanting that someone to want to be with you. Love is an appreciation for the gospel, in every aspect of life. Love is a willingness to lay your own life down for another person. God is love.
It is a choice to let feelings dominate actions. It is a choice to remain in a certain state of emotion. It is a choice to know the truth, but not to live according to it. And it is a sin.
God intended me to feel. But He also intended to be bigger than my feelings. God doesn't say, "I will never leave you nor forsake you, except when you're on my nerves." God doesn't claim that His joy is our strength, except when we feel weak. God doesn't say, "There is no greater love than one who lays down his life for someone who we deem worth it." God doesn't base truth on our feelings.
Truth is truth. And I am called to live in truth.