In my early Christian life, whenever something went wrong, I would doubt God's love for me. When preachers said God did things for His glory and our good, I would think, "His glory maybe, but my good? How is this good for me?"
There may be many reasons for that reaction, too many to explore here. But surely one was being spiritually immature and not knowing my Bible well enough. Another was the mistaken (and also immature) notion that if God loved me, I wouldn't have problems. A popular book at the time was If God Loves Me, Why Can't I Get My Locker Open? I never read the book, but I identified with the feeling.
Satan has capitalized on those feelings since the beginning. When he came to tempt Adam and Eve, he questioned what God said, contradicted it, and insinuated that God didn't really have their best in mind.
Perhaps that's one reason Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that God would "grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." It's interesting that the next well-known verse in that passage comes in this context: "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
God wants us to know and rest in His love.
Why?
Well, anyone who loves wants the other person to know it.
But also, when we're secure in God's love, we'll be less inclined to believe Satan's lies. We can go forward through whatever trial is ahead knowing God is with us and has allowed it for some good purpose. We can obey Him because we know He is good, righteous, kind, and loving. We can love others out of the overflow of God's love to us.
So how can we remind ourselves of God's love when we might not feel it?
Remember what He did to save you. God would not have put up with all He did throughout humanity's history, and Jesus would not have come to earth to live and die for us, if they did not love us. John 3:16, probably the most famous Bible passage in the world, tells us, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
God's law convicted me of my sin and showed me my need for a Savior. But it was His love that drew me, that convinced me He would receive me. He loved me when I was still in sin, His enemy, and uninterested. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Chas. H. Gabriel expressed this beautifully in his hymn "He Lifted Me":
He called me long before I heard,
Before my sinful heart was stirred,
But when I took Him at His word,
Forgiven, He lifted me.
From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me,
From shades of night to plains of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me!
In Hosea, God says He drew Ephraim with "gentle cords, bands of love." James Grindlay Small captures this in "I've Found a Friend":
I've found a Friend, oh, such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.
Get to know God better. Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). Eternal life begins with knowing God. But we come to know Him increasingly more through our lives. We learn about Him from nature and other people, but the primary way of knowing Him better is through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we rest in His character and love.
Remember how He has blessed you. I've mentioned before "Ebenezers," those times in your life when you especially saw God move and work in your behalf.
Meditate on His Word. I've referred to a few verses about God's love. Here are a few more:
The LORD delights in you (Isaiah 62:4).
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.(Isaiah 49:15-16).
The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love (Psalm 147:11).
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17).
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15).
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love (John 15:9).
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are (1 John 3:1).
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:5).
Listen to Scripture-based songs about God's love, or read the lyrics. I've mentioned a few already. Here are some more:
"The Love of God" by Frederick Martin Lehman
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
"The King of Love" by H. W. Baker is based on Psalm 23:
Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me
And on his shoulder gently laid
And home rejoicing brought me.
"Here Is Love" by William Rees:
Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout heav'n's eternal days.
"How Deep the Father's Love For Us" by Stuart Townend (This is still under copyright, so I won't post its lyrics, but you can find them here).
"O Wondrous Love" by Steve and Vikki Cook is also still under copyright: the lyrics are here.
"I am His and He Is Mine" by George Wade Robinson:
Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.
"In Heavenly Love Abiding" by Anna Letitia Waring:
In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here:
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?
Remember God's love and truth work hand in hand. Some people emphasize God's love to the exclusion of His righteousness and holiness. They see God as a doddering old grandfather who overlooks any wrongdoing and slips them sweets when their mother isn't looking. They don't understand that God is a God of truth as well as love, that it wouldn't be loving of Him to let us go on in our sin without chastening.
A loving parent has to say no sometimes, or require hard things. A child might feel the parent would show more love by giving everything the child wants or making life easy. But that kind of behavior is selfish rather than loving, wanting the child's approval (or wanting to avoid a tantrum) instead of doing what would build the child's character.
Remember God's love is based on His character, not ours. When we're doing what we're supposed to, we "feel" loved by God. But when we fall and fail, we feel maybe His love has dimmed a little, if not evaporated.
But the Bible tells us that "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14). Verse 17 goes on to say, "But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him."
He chastens us like a father because He loves us (Hebrew 12:5-11).
Though John 3:16 says God loves the world, that doesn't mean the whole world has automatically become His. Some reject or ignore God's love and gifts.
"God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12).
If you're not one of God's children by faith in Jesus Christ, I invite you to accept His love, His sacrifice on your behalf on the cross. Click here for more information on how to know God.
If you do know God, rest in His love, remind yourself of it often.
May you "come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
No comments:
Post a Comment