By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. (Hebrews 11:7a)

As a therapist, I really like this verse. God warned Noah of the coming flood, and by faith, Noah built a huge monstrosity of a boat to protect his family. He certainly stepped out in faith, as he had no inclination of the flood other than God's word.

Of course, in today's time, walking by faith is hardly ever as dramatic as building 450 feet long cypress wood boats. It's more like figuring out if you pay the gas bill to let the phone bill ride a little longer, or to take the job in Dallas and uproot your family. Regardless of the size of the task before us, our job is to follow God's will for our lives - to walk by faith.

I believe that people get carried away with the idea that to walk by faith means saying adios to our feelings...that the two are incompatible somehow. That's just not the case. Look at the verses above. God, in his infinite wisdom, tucked away the little phrase "in holy fear" to tell us that Noah had an emotional reaction, but it didn't trump his mental decision to follow God's will.

We're emotional beings, made that way in the image of an emotional God. He's familiar with emotions. Jesus exhibited many emotions while He was God Incarnate here on Earth. He cried, got angry, was disappointed, rejected...He felt the full continuum of human emotions. Even so, He walked by faith in Someone higher than the emotions He felt, Someone who created them.

Consider Jesus' words to His Father while He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). The scriptures tell us a verse later that He was in anguish.

But Jesus was God, you say. How are we expected to do this?

By following his example.

1. Pray. Jesus prayed in the midst of His anguish. His emotion didn't stifle His need or urge to pray. We should do the same. When overwhelmed with emotion, drop to your knees. Even if you aren't sure what to pray for, you can at least pray for God to remove your emotions from the equation so you can see the matter with heaven's eyes.
2. Actions speak louder than words. Follow up your vocal prayer with action. If it's to build the boat, then get to chopping. If it's to change jobs, make a pro and con list. Jesus' action was to pray more earnestly (Luke 22:44).
3. Review. I'm sure when Noah was safe and dry, he didn't question his previous actions of building the boat in the face of the scorn of others. No doubt he felt the assuredness of being in the center of God's will for him because he had proof. We won't always have solid proof like Noah, but we should have solid peace if we indeed walked by faith. If you're missing that peace, review your decision and then start this process again.

The difference between fear and what Noah felt is the word holy. When our emotions are holy, it means that they take a backseat to our desire to please God by staying in the center of His will for our lives.

Jeannie Campbell is a Christ-follower, wife, mother and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, in that order. She got her masters of divinity in psychology and counseling from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and her bachelors in psychology and journalism from The University of Mississippi. She's a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and American Christian Fiction Writers. In her spare time, she writes feature articles for magazines and local newspapers and blog posts for The Character Therapist. Email Jeannie.