We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

I believe Christianity is true, but how do I feel it?
READER: Reading your Letters From a Skeptic recently helped me conclude that Jesus really is Lord and that he died for me, so I decided to become his follower. But for some reason I don’t yet feel like I’m all the way there. It seems like there’s a disconnect between my head and my heart. I don’t feel God like I think you’re supposed to. I believe Christianity is true, but I don’t feel like it’s true. Can you help me?
GREG: I’m so happy you’re starting to “walk the path” and am honored that my book and teachings had a little role to play in bringing you there. Thanks for sharing this!
There are two things I’ll say in response to your question. First, I want to encourage you to passionately commit to following Christ as best as you know how whether you feel anything or not. Our feelings are damaged goods in this fallen world, and you can’t rely on them for much of anything — certainly not to decide what is “true” or not. So if you have reason to believe Jesus is Lord, then I encourage you to embrace him hook, line, and sinker. Faith in Christ includes being faithFUL in our life to Christ, but it doesn’t necessarily include feeling anything one way or another.
Having said that, I want to tell you that feelings are always a function of what is going on in our imagination. This is my second point. We usually aren’t aware of it, but we have videos and soundtracks and images popping in our brain all the time, and each one has a feeling component. We are conscious of the feelings, but usually not of the stuff in our imagination that is associated with the feelings. In order to change our feelings, we need to change the videos and soundtracks and images playing in our head.
Most people don’t feel God-stuff because they don’t imagine God-stuff. In this fallen world, our brains are conditioned to function atheistically. We block God out. But I want to encourage you to start incorporating him into your thoughts. For example, you know God is all around you, so try to imagine that and remain aware of that as much as you can throughout the day. And when you pray, I encourage you to ask God to help you imagine talking to Jesus in whatever setting the Holy Spirit inspires you to imagine. Don’t do this in order to feel something. Do it because it’s true, and the core of our growth in Christ is simply getting our minds and our behavior — and yes, even our feelings — to be aligned with truth. As you do this, you may find yourself beginning to feel the reality of God’s love, presence, etc.
I have two books on this topic you may find beneficial. In the first, Seeing Is Believing, I talk about the role of imagination in prayer. In the second, Escaping the Matrix, my friend Al Larsen and I talk about strategies that empower us to change our feelings and behavior by changing our imagination.
Keep believing and growing in him!
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christian Life, Spiritual Formation
Topics: Hearing God, Prayer
Related Reading

Quotes to Chew On: The Church vs. Religion
“It’s time for the Church to free itself from the religious holiness of the Pharisees and begin to manifest the holiness of the Kingdom. It’s time for us to realize that our calling is to serve people sacrificially–including prostitutes, tax collectors, and enemies–rather than judging them. It’s time we ceased getting Life from the rightness…

Can Christians be Demon Possessed?
The Greek word that is usually translated “demon-possessed” in the Gospels is demonizomai, which literally means “to be rendered passive toward a demon.” It’s unfortunate, in my view, that the term is usually translated “demon possession.” “Possession” implies complete ownership whereas the concept of being rendered passive toward a demon can be reflective of many degrees…

Sermon Clip: Dear Abby
In this short sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses Matthew 7. The infamous “plank in your own eye vs a speck of dust in your neighbors. He clarifies what this verse means when you have a close friend with an issue that you are helping them with. In the full sermon of Heart Smart our team…

Sermon Clip: Spiritual Bodybuilding
In this sermon clip, Greg Boyd introduces the idea of charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, or those gifts often referred to as the supernatural gifts. In the full sermon he discusses each gift individually, and explains two pieces of information needed to understand the gifts. He discusses listening to the Spirit and using the…

How can prayer change God’s mind?
You’ve argued that since God is all-good, he’s always doing the most he can do in every situation to bring about good. But you have also argued that prayer can change God’s mind. How are these two beliefs compatible?

Does the Bible forbid interracial marriages?
Absolutely not! Racist Christians used to argue against interracial marriage by quoting Old Testament passages that prohibited Jews from marrying non-Jews. This prohibition had nothing to do with race, however. In fact, there was no concept of different “races” until white Europeans invented it during the Colonial period, partly to justify their enslavement of other…