Part 5: Faith That Functions Without Feedback Series

The Dopamine Problem We Don't Talk About

We are the most over-stimulated generation in history.

Think about your day. You send a text your phone pings when they respond. You order something online your phone dings when it's shipped. You post something on social media your phone buzzes with likes and comments. Our brains have been trained to expect constant feedback. Instant validation. Immediate response.

No response means no relationship.

So, we've brought that into our prayer closets. We pray and wait for the ping. We worship and wait for the ding. We cry out to God and wait for the notification that we've been heard.

And when nothing comes? When the silence is deafening? We don't just feel lonely. We feel ghosted.

We feel like God has left us on read.

Here's the brutal truth. Most of us don't have faith. Most of us have feedback addiction. We've trained our brains to believe that constant confirmation equals real relationship. And when God refuses to confirm, we panic.

We assume God isn't listening. We assume we've done something wrong. We assume our faith is broken.

But what if the real problem is this? We've never actually learned to trust God without constant validation.

Today, we're going to change that. Today, we're going to discover what real faith looks like. And I'm going to warn you right now it's not what your phone has trained you to expect.

FAITH IS NOT A FEELING

It's a Choice You Make in the Darkness

Let me be brutally honest.

Faith is not a feeling.

Stop right there if you need to, because that might just break everything you think you know about spirituality.

Faith is not the warm sense of God's presence. Faith is not the emotional high you get during a worship service. Faith is not the sudden clarity that comes when you read a verse that seems tailor-made for your situation. Those things are wonderful. But they are not faith.

Biblical faith is something far more radical. Faith is a choice. A deliberate act of the will. A decision made in the cold, in the dark, when you feel nothing and see nothing.

Faith is choosing to trust God's character when your circumstances suggest you shouldn't. Faith is choosing to believe God's word when your emotions are screaming otherwise. Faith is choosing to follow God's direction when the path is unclear and the outcome is terrifying.

Listen to what Paul writes:

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

Notice the contrast. Faith and sight. Trust and perception. Belief and evidence.

Paul is not saying our eyes are evil. Paul is saying that the fundamental orientation of your life cannot be toward what you can verify. It has to be toward what you trust about God.

Sight is empirical verification. It's what you can measure, quantify, prove. Sight says, "Show me and I'll believe."

Faith says the opposite. Faith says, "I believe even though I cannot see. I trust even though I cannot perceive. I follow even though I cannot verify."

And here's where it gets terrifying. Silence removes sight. Darkness removes all the props. And in that absence, faith must stand naked and alone.

That's when faith becomes real.

EMUNAH: THE FAITH THAT SURVIVES

More Than Just Steadfastness

The prophet Habakkuk has been screaming at God.

"How long will I cry for help and You do not listen? How long?"

Habakkuk is demanding answers. Habakkuk is exhausted. Habakkuk has lost patience. And then God responds. But God doesn't answer Habakkuk's questions. Instead, God says this:

"The righteous shall live by his faith."

The Hebrew word is ???????? (emunah).

And this word is everything.

Emunah is not what most of us think when we hear the word "faith." Emunah isn't a moment of belief. It's not a burst of confidence. Emunah is actually a military term. It means the steadfastness of a sentry. The endurance of a soldier at a post.

Picture this. It's 3:00 a.m. A soldier is standing guard in the rain. It's cold. It's dark. He hasn't heard from his commander in hours. He doesn't feel brave. He doesn't feel spiritual. He doesn't feel anything. His feet are numb. His face is soaked. But he's there. He stays at his post. Not because he feels like it. Because that's what a sentry does.

That's emunah.

When God says, "The righteous shall live by their faith," God is saying, "The ones who will survive, who will endure, who will ultimately be vindicated, are not the ones who have all the answers. They're not the ones who can see clearly what I'm doing. They're the ones who, despite the confusion, despite the silence, despite the complete absence of feedback, stay at their post. They maintain steadfast allegiance to Me, independent of what they can perceive or feel."