Many people are puzzled by hearing Christians talking continually about their feelings. Such expressions as, "I feel that my sins are forgiven," "I feel that I am saved," "I feel that I am ready to meet God," baffle them. Since they have no such feelings they become discouraged.
A Christian went to see a dying man who was an atheist. As the visitor entered the room, the sick man spoke: "Oh, you have come to ask if I feel saved, I suppose? Well, you need not bother. My wife is always talking about feeling saved, but I do not believe in any such thing. I gave all that up twenty years ago when I burnt my Bible."
"No, I haven't the slightest wish to hear that you feel saved; if you did, you might soon feel lost again. But, whether you accept it or not, there is one great fact, that the Son of God came to earth and died to save your soul. If you don't choose to believe God's Word you will certainly be lost forever-not because you are a sinner, but because you are so utterly foolish as to reject the fact which God sets before you. And yet it will still remain a fact that the Son of God died for you, and you might have been saved by that fact."
Not long after this conversation the sick man was called into eternity. As he was dying his wife said to him, "John, dear, do tell me you feel saved before you go."
Raising his head he said, "Feelings cannot save me, but facts can. It is a fact that the Son of God died for me, and I die on that fact."
How true it is that "feelings cannot save, but facts can." The glorious, soul-saving fact that Christ died for me is the ground of my confidence. I am a sinner; Christ died for sinners, therefore He died for me.
C. H. Spurgeon in his last illness said to friends around him: "I can die on these four words." They eagerly listened to hear what the four words were, and he added: "Jesus died for me."
That is the fundamental fact of the gospel. Faith believes the fact. Faith takes God at His word. "The gospel of Christ... is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Romans 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16). The moment the sinner believes the glad and glorious gospel of Christ he is saved for eternity.
I feel happy because I know I am saved. However, whether I feel happy or feel miserable, it is true that I am saved because God's Word says so, and what God says must be true. Stop thinking of your feelings towards God, or lack of feelings. Think instead of His matchless love to you.