I am simply asking, "what does it mean to believe?" Can one choose to believe despite not feeling or is feeling a requirement?
Brother, if I may, our feelings are fleeting. They flow and they ebb. They go to the right, and then to the left, tossed all about because they are so very subject to our moment to moment situations, and therefore untrustworthy.
Hebrews 11:1, 3
1 Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ...
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that
things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Read those verses carefully, allowing them to sink in, prayerfully.
Now, one may ask how we can obtain that substance of things hoped for, and acquire the evidence of things no seen. Well, believing, faith, those are operators that the Lord has supplied the substance for already through the things in nature that testify of His Glory. This is the beginning of understanding, and from this, we can then move forward:
Perhaps an analogy is in order. I can choose to be kind and act in a loving manner to another, and perhaps in time also feel love, but I cannot choose to feel love.
So with God, must one believe with the heart or is it enough to want to believe and act as though one does, and perhaps in time feel belief inside?
Many a husband and wife have headed to the divorce court because of their not FEELING love for one another any longer, and usually on the basis of discouragement and no longer feeling that infatuation toward one another. Once they get to the point that they must either give in to their feelings, or work to bring their inner man and inner woman into conformance with what they "hope for."
Yes, you read that right. The wisdom we find in scripture, it sometimes seems counterintuitive, or even unrelatable. So, one can either believe the wisdom of scripture, or they can deny it and seek out some humanistic bent upon the topic that appeals to their fallen senses of right and wrong. Right there is the one item that's well within proximity to the prime problem most of mankind has with God, which is His Sovereignty. Man wants to formulate his inner world in accordance with his own musings and feelings rather than to realize that faith/belief are wild parts of our nature that must be tamed and brought into conformance with what we KNOW to be true rather than what we WANT to be true. It starts with our KNOWING that God is, and He is true, and that all men are liars, which includes you and me:
Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea,
let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written,
That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
It all comes down to the Judgement of God. That is the one operator of His Nature that makes all things solid in relation to faith in Him and His word about us and our nature. His nature is planted upon an immovable foundation that is not subject to our whims, and by conforming our minds, first and foremost, above all else, it is in that framework that our feelings are THEN seen for what they are...like wild beasts at times that MUST be brought into conformity with a choice that we were given the freedom to make, which is either obedience unto the Lord, or doing it OUR way.
Brother, please believe me when I say that once one arrives at that deeper understanding, that shines the light upon the fact that we, individually, are actually our worst enemy...not the devil and his demons, but we ourselves, and that's the price of freedom, in that we must fight the good fight daily, starting with ourselves and our sin nature that is wild and wanting its own way, and actually has a great deal of power over our emotions. That's why we should never "follow our hearts," but rather to NOT perish for lack of knowledge:
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Nowhere does the Lord say for us to follow our hearts. That's the world that says that, and that has led many weak-minded people along destructive paths.
Hope that helps.
MM