Someone once said that “feeling good is everything.” It’s a pretty significant statement, but we’ll miss the true essence of feeling good if we don’t unpack this statement a bit. Most of us relate the state of feeling good to the quality of a happy emotional state. If all is well in our lives, and we’re content, most of us feel pretty good, but all of this is contingent on conditions. In other words, many of us base our happiness or contentment in life on external factors. If we get up in the morning, and things are not good in our worlds, or something goes wrong in our relationships, work life, or finances, many of us allow these situations to impact how we feel. We allow external conditions to dictate our internal condition. When I relayed this to a friend, she said to me, “But isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?”

The long and short of it is “No”, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. It’s backwards. We live from the inside out, not the other way around. We’re not created to live through our emotions, because we could be up one day and down the next living that way. We are created to live through the love of Jesus Christ, because everything that exist is under him, and there is no greater power than the love he gives us. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20(NLT), “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This is a game changer. Our goal is not to live based on the circumstances and conditions we face, but to live in Christ. This means we are to live through his power! And his love is the greatest power that exists.

Many of us allow our emotions to dictate the quality of our lives. This means that we are placing our entire existence under the government of our emotions and feelings. This is not the way to live. Jesus Christ tells us in John 10:10 that he came to the earth to give us a more than abundant life. This is a life where we are living with Holy Spirit power, and therefore living a life of love. Love is exceedingly more than a feeling. Love is a commitment to honor God through Jesus Christ with our whole lives. Emotions and feelings are instructive and add flavor to our fulfillment in life, but they have nowhere near the capacity required to contain the power and authority of Christ. We must understand this.

Jesus Christ is the living Word of God, and God’s Word makes us whole. Our belief in God’s Word, and our obedience to it, is the foundation for quality living. We cannot look to emotions and feelings to tell us who or how we are. We have a sure and steady foundation in the person of Jesus Christ, and this is the foundation we must stand on unwaveringly. Colossians 3:1-4(NLT) says, “1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”

A person might ask, “Well what am I supposed to do? I have too many problems and issues coming at me all at once. Am I supposed to just turn a blind eye and not worry about these things? What happens if my life is wrecked?” A wrecked life is a life without faith in God, and many of us are in this predicament today. God offers us a solution through the person of Jesus Christ. To accept this solution means that there must be a paradigm shift in our minds and hearts. We must change the way we think.

In order to understand more clearly this mental and emotional shift that faith in God requires of us, we need to think about some of the things we automatically accept today. We accept the promises of other people and institutions simply because everyone else does. We put an incredible amount of trust in the banks, and most of us have no problem trusting that the money we put in the bank will still be there when we need it. Even before the money is in our hands, we trust that our employers will pay us for the work we do each week. We trust that money, not faith in God, is our ticket to support and well-being.

We don’t even give these things a second thought. We trust them utterly and completely because the world has told us that this is the way to go. God tells us in Romans 12:2(NLT), “2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” We’ve been programmed to think like everyone else. God commands us to disconnect from that programming and to renew our minds to His Word. Then we will live powerfully because we will think the same way that Christ thinks.

We’ve been trained to fear poverty and to have faith in the world’s institutions. We place more faith in them than we do in God, and He is the Creator of all. This is an unacceptable way to live. Genesis 2:7(NLT) tells us, “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” God is the Giver of life. Romans 8:28 tells us that for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, He makes all things work together for our good. Living for God through the example that Jesus Christ set is the highest quality of life anyone can achieve. Christ has given us the key to God’s kingdom, and when we think, live, and give like him, we will open the door to a life filled with his blessings and love.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“Your Quality of Life”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.