Category: Christianity

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read from other Christians that “you should leave church feeling encouraged, uplifted, or spiritually refreshed”.

Whether it’s after Sunday service or a midweek Bible study, there’s this unspoken and even spoken expectation that positive emotions should follow faithful worship and righteous living.

But let’s be honest: that’s not always the case, nor should it be.

The idea that every act of obedience to God will be met with positive emotional rewards is not only unrealistic but also fundamentally misunderstanding the Christian walk.

Life isn’t about guaranteed emotional payoffs for doing what’s right.

Sometimes, obedience to God feels like a sacrifice with no immediate return.

And that’s okay because the walk isn’t about your emotions; it’s about your obedience.

The Paradox of Sacrifice

One of the realities of Christian life is that sacrifice often doesn’t come with immediate rewards.

Sometimes, it doesn’t even come with rewards in this life at all.

The Bible calls for self-denial, and Christ himself demonstrated this through his life and death.

If there’s one thing we should understand from the Christian journey, it’s that the sacrifices we make here are often only rewarded in the next life, if at all.

But somehow, there’s this pervasive idea that when we walk into church, sacrifice our time, energy, and resources, we should immediately leave feeling encouraged, as if the sacrifice guarantees an emotional reward.

That’s simply not how the human emotional apparatus works.

Emotions Are Unpredictable and Inconsistent

Emotions are unpredictable, inconsistent, and highly variable.

No set of actions can reliably reproduce the same emotions over and over again.

Think about a simple example like practicing gratitude. You may have tried this habit before and experienced what I’m about to describe.

You could perform the same gratitude practice—listing what you’re thankful for—every day for ten days, but your emotional response will differ every single time.

Some days you may feel deeply grateful, other days you may feel nothing at all, and on some days, you might even feel negative.

The only thing that produces reliable, consistent emotional responses is hard drugs – which are inherently harmful – which chemically manipulate the brain to produce predictable feelings of euphoria.

Clearly, that’s not what we’re aiming for in our spiritual lives.

So why do we expect church or Bible study to deliver the same emotional outcome each time we attend?

Why do we teach people that they should always leave worship feeling “encouraged” when human experience simply doesn’t work that way?

The truth is, it’s impossible to guarantee any specific emotional outcome from any human action, much less a church service, no matter how faithful or dedicated you are.

Different People, Different Feelings

If you were to poll every person in a congregation as they leave a service or Bible study, you would get a range of answers on how they felt.

Some would say they felt uplifted and encouraged, others might feel indifferent, and still others might leave feeling emotionally drained.

This range of responses isn’t a reflection of the quality of the worship service but rather a reflection of the unique emotional makeup of each person.

There are countless variables—personality, upbringing, habits, mindset—that determine how a person feels at any given time.

And it’s naive to think that everyone can perform the same spiritual acts and come out feeling the same way.

Medicine doesn’t even work that way and it’s based in natural law.

If the exact same dose of the same medication worked the exact same way in every patient, doctors wouldn’t need to exist—computers could do their job. But that’s not how human biology works, and it’s certainly not how our emotions work either.

There are hundreds of confounding variables that influence how a medicine acts on the body. Even so, there are hundreds of confounding variables that changes how we experience emotions.

So when it comes to church, why would we expect everyone to have the same emotional reaction? We shouldn’t. It’s entirely unreasonable and illogical.

It’s Not About How You Feel; It’s About What You Do

This obsession with needing to feel encouraged or uplifted after church has shifted the focus away from what’s truly important.

Worship, obedience, and righteous living are about God, not about you or how you feel.

Sometimes you might leave church or Bible study feeling like you got nothing out of it—and that’s perfectly fine.

It’s not about you to begin with.

The central question isn’t whether you feel emotionally fulfilled after worship but whether you were obedient.

Were you faithful?
Did you offer your worship in spirit and truth?
Did you listen, reflect, and try to apply the teachings of Scripture?

These are the things that matter. Not your emotions.

We confuse believers when we teach them that they need to feel a certain way after church in order for the experience to be valid. That’s not how spiritual discipline works.

The Christian walk is about doing what’s right, regardless of how you feel.

If you obey God, live righteously, and follow his commands, you’ve done what you’re supposed to do, even if you don’t feel a single twinge of emotional reward afterward.

The Discipline of Obedience

We have to remember that faithful living is about discipline, not about being handed emotional treats like a dog performing tricks.

Sometimes the Christian life is hard, and sometimes you don’t feel encouraged at all. But that’s no reason to stop doing what’s right.

Imagine this: You’ve had a long, exhausting day at work, and the last thing you want to do is attend a Wednesday night Bible study. You go anyway. Maybe you didn’t feel inspired by the message, maybe you were tired and couldn’t focus, and maybe you didn’t leave feeling spiritually recharged. But your obedience to God is what matters. You prioritized Him over your fatigue, your emotions, or your personal preferences. That’s faithfulness.

Your emotions may tell you that you’d rather be anywhere else, but your mindset tells you that you need to be in church, doing your best to honor God.

You can have a miserable emotional experience yet still be living in perfect obedience.

That’s what true Christian discipline looks like.

The Problem with Emotional Expectations

When we teach people to expect emotional rewards for every act of faithfulness, we set them up for spiritual confusion. Many will believe that if they don’t feel encouraged after church, they’ve somehow failed or that their faith is lacking. This is a gross misunderstanding of what the Christian walk is all about.

The Bible doesn’t promise emotional rewards for obedience.

Sometimes, you’ll just have to do what’s right without feeling anything.

In fact, Romans 6:18 tells us that we have “been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

Slaves don’t ask for rewards; they simply do what is required of them.

Faith Over Feelings

You don’t have to feel encouraged every time you leave church, and you don’t have to feel a positive emotional reward every time you obey God.

Sometimes, faith means doing what’s right even when your emotions aren’t aligned with it.

The Christian walk is about discipline, not emotional gratification.

If we can learn to prioritize obedience over feelings, we’ll stop chasing emotional highs and start living the kind of faithful, consistent life that God truly calls us to.

So no, you don’t need to feel encouraged when you leave church. What you need is to be obedient, faithful, and committed—no matter how you feel.

The Separation of Emotion and Obedience

There’s a pervasive assumption within Christian circles that in order to faithfully serve God and fulfill His commands, you must feel a longing for fellowship, for worship, or for obedience.

Many of us grow up being taught and thinking that a lack of emotional drive signals a deficiency in our faith, and that God expects not only our actions but also our emotions to align perfectly with what we are doing.

However, the Bible does not support this notion.

While emotions can be a helpful companion to our actions, they are not a prerequisite for faithfulness.

The Bible commands the right attitudes and right actions — not the right emotions.

God commands us to be obedient, regardless of how we feel at the moment.

What matters most is what you do, not how you feel about doing it.

You don’t have to long to be with your brethren, nor do you have to emotionally connect with every aspect of Christian living in order to do what’s right.

Attitude vs. Emotion: What the Bible Actually Commands

First, we must understand the distinction between attitude and emotion. They are not the same thing.

Emotions are usually involuntary and spontaneous reactions to our circumstances [though you can learn to control them to an extent], attitudes are deliberate mindsets and decisions we make about how we think and act.

God commands attitudes, but nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to feel specific emotions.

If you think you find a command in scripture to feel a certain way, look closer and make sure it’s not about cultivating an appropriate mindset – more often than not this will be the case.

For example:

• Philippians 2:5 (NKJV): “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

• The command is clear: Let this mind — a specific way of thinking and attitude.

This passage doesn’t command us to feel something, but to manually develop a specific mindset modeled after Christ.

• John 14:15 (NKJV): “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

• This isn’t about feeling an emotional surge of love. It’s about obedience.



Loving Christ means acting in accordance with His will, not necessarily feeling a particular way.

You prove that you love Christ by doing what He says, not by feeling a specific way.

• 1 Peter 1:13 (NKJV): “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

• The command here is to prepare your mind — an actionable decision to focus on godly thinking, not an emotional feeling.

These verses reveal an underlying them of the Bible – that God is much more concerned with what we do and how we think than what we feel.

Attitude and obedience matter; emotions, while they may be present, are secondary and not commanded.

Obedience Is Not Dependent on Feeling

The clearest biblical example of the separation between obedience and emotion is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In Matthew 26:39 (NKJV), Jesus prays, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Here, Jesus feels horrible negative emotions – dread, anxiety, fear, anguish – emotions that are entirely human, but He chooses to obey regardless of those emotions.

His feelings did not determine His course of action.

This is a key point. Emotions do not negate the responsibility to obey.

God never requires us to feel like obeying; He simply requires that we do it.

Similarly, you don’t need to feel an emotional longing to be with your brethren or to serve in worship.

The absence of such feelings doesn’t disqualify your faithfulness.

The Bible is concerned with doing the right things with the right mindset.

Longing for the Church: A Command or a Choice?

Many cite examples from Paul, who often expressed a longing for his fellow Christians.

Take, for instance, Philippians 1:8 (NKJV): “For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.”

However, Paul’s expression of emotion here is descriptive, not prescriptive.

He isn’t commanding all Christians to feel the same longing he does.

His emotional attachment to the brethren reflects his personal experience, but nowhere does the New Testament demand that we feel the same.

We are commanded to love one another, but biblical love is action—it’s serving, supporting, and obeying God’s commands to benefit others.

The Command to Love Is a Command to Act

In John 13:34 (NKJV), Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Here, love is commanded, but love in biblical terms is not defined by emotional attachment.

Biblical love is seen in action—in serving, in humility, in sacrifice.

This idea is supported by 1 John 3:18 (NKJV): “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

Love, in this context, is about what you do, not what you feel.

If you obey God’s command to love by serving your brethren, you are fulfilling His command, whether or not you feel a surge of emotional longing to be with them.

Potential Counterpoints and Rebuttals

1. Joy and Rejoicing Are Commanded

Some might point to verses like Philippians 4:4 (NKJV): “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” and claim that this commands an emotion—joy.

However, the command to rejoice can be understood as an attitude of deliberate focus on spiritual blessings, not an emotion that arises spontaneously.

This is further clarified in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV): “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

The focus here is on adopting a grateful mindset and keeping a focus on God, regardless of circumstances.

Rejoicing and being joyful are descriptors of mindset, not emotion.

2. Godly Sorrow for Sin

Others may point to 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV): “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

This highlights that sorrow can have a place in repentance.

However, godly sorrow isn’t necessarily an overwhelming emotional experience.

It’s an awareness of sin, a change of mind, and a decision to turn away from sin.

While emotion can be involved, the act of repentance is about changing behavior, not being overtaken by feelings.

Though in practice, I find it much easier to experience godly sorrow than to experience positive emotions.

If you concentrate your mind on what sin cost the Godhead, what it cost Christ on the cross, it often leads to negative sensations that generate repentance.

The key, again, in this passage is about the repentance.

We can hav godly sorrow all day long, but if we aren’t repenting – chancing our actions – it means nothing.

Attitude and Action Are Enough

In the end, you don’t have to feel an emotional longing to be with your brethren to obey God’s command to gather together. That’s just Pharisaical teaching in the modern world.

The Bible emphasizes obedience and right attitude—those are within our immediate control.

We as Christians are expected to act with the right mindset, to serve with intention, and to do what God commands, regardless of how we feel.

Emotions may follow, but they are not a requirement for faithfulness.

You don’t need to feel a surge of desire to attend worship or serve.

What matters is doing it with the proper attitude of reverence and submission to God.

God is more concerned with what you do and how you think than how you feel.

Conclusion

The idea that emotions are essential to obedience is simply not biblical.

God commands right action and right attitude, not emotional experiences.

You don’t have to feel an emotional longing to serve God, be with your brethren, or worship.

What matters is that you do these things, with the right mindset, regardless of how you feel.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Obey God’s commands, focus your mind on what is right, and let your actions speak louder than any fleeting emotion.

Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease!

Proverbs often talk about money and man’s relationship to it.

Proverbs 23:4 talk about the foolishness of the relentless pursuit of wealth at the expense of everything else in life.

Solomon warns against the obsession with riches, teaching us that at the root of understanding is the knowledge that overworking for riches is no optimal.

Recognize the Futility of Greed

The pursuit of wealth can easily become an all-consuming endeavor. It can become an idol in the heart.

Solomon’s instruction to “labor not to be rich” teaches us not allow the desire for money to dominate our lives.

Wealth can provide comfort, and it is a valuable tool, but it should not be our ultimate goal.

Understanding this distinction is crucial for maintaining a accurate perspective on life.

Focus on Valuable Goals

Instead of fixating on accumulating wealth, redirect your energy toward pursuits that bring lasting value.

Maybe it’s investing in relationships, personal growth, or service.

The Dangers of Overworking

Solomon’s warning also highlights the dangers of overworking in the relentless chase for financial gain.

While hard work can be honorable, it should not come at the expense of your health, relationships, or spiritual well-being.

Practice Generosity

One of the most effective antidotes to the greed that Solomon warns against is generosity.

By sharing our resources with others, we shift our focus from accumulation to service.

If we recognize the futility of greed, focus on goals, trust in God’s provision, and practice generosity, we can lead improved lives, represent the faith, and live honorably.