I was a high school and college instructor for many years. If I had a nickel for every time a student walked out of my class saying “I know I aced that test” only to realize a few days later this was not the case, I would be obviously a rich man.

Feelings can deceive. This is why I like Bill Bright’s illustration in his famous Four Spiritual Laws tract that was so popular in the 1970s. Take a look at the illustration above. Do you understand the message?

First, we have Facts, such as there must be a God and truth of the resurrection of Jesus. Yet despite all the evidence that can be produced, I cannot empirically “prove” that God exists or that the resurrection of Jesus was a historical event.

That leads to the second point, which is we must have Faith in these things. Believing in God or the resurrection is not a leap into the dark but rather a leap into the light.As the author of Hebrews puts it, we cannot please God without faith (11:1ff).

Finally, there are Feelings that belong at the tail-end of the train called the caboose. Yes, it’s nice to have good feelings, but if that aspect of our lives is steering the train, look out! This is because feelings–whether good or bad–can be based in incomplete information or even a false perception. I might feel good about sin, for instance, but this doesn’t mean that God approves of wrong behavior.

Unfortunately, many people have converted to Mormonism because they have been told to read Moroni 10:4-5 at the end of the Book of Mormon and pray to see if this book/religion is true. This is a litmus test for failure. I might feel “good” about jumping out of a plane 20,000 feet in the air, but without a parachute, this is a recipe for certain disaster.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Meanwhile, Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

We have all been wrong, whether it was the feeling that I aced a test, that I was in “love,” or that I believed a stock would go in value so I should invest heavily now. (Trust me, I’ve experienced all three failures!) The last thing we want to do is put our faith in something that can lead us away from the truth as revealed in God’s Word, the Bible.

For more on this topic, consider this article titled 10 Reasons Why a Person Ought to Become a Christian and 10 Reasons Why It Makes Sense to Trust in the Bible

Also check out “Praying about the Book of Mormon: Is It Biblical?” and “4 Reasons Why Nobody Should Ever Pray About a Testimony…Ever!”