25 Feb 2014
The single most powerful force for change in this world is love, God's love. He desires to provide to us a superabundant supply, but usually we do not know what is necessary to receive it.
John 3:16 (NASB95) 16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Most of us accept that God loves the entire world, but somehow we tend to exclude ourselves from this personal powerful truth. No doubt a significant part of this reasoning is our tendency to think of God in terms of a human person. But God is not anything like us. He is all knowing and all loving. It is difficult or impossible for our small minds to fully conceive such a God, nevertheless He tells us clearly supernatural love is one characteristic that makes up His nature. Another example of God’s supernatural nature He is all knowing and He controls everything:
Matthew 10:29 (AMP)
29 Are not two little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice.
If God notices and must give consent for a single sparrow to fall to the ground, will He not perfectly provide His supernatural love to you who He created in His own image?
If we had any idea the full value and power of God's love we would be willing to stand in line all night to receive it. Yet while God’s love is very powerful it is not hard to receive. In fact is so simple that we usually don't believe it will work for us. It is so easy that it is hard. So then how do we receive God's love?
1 John 4:16 (NASB95) 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (emphasis added)
We receive God's love by faith. We simply must believe. There is no fee, no long term contract. There is no down payment or damage deposit. We simply are required to believe God loves us. Oh, there are many who say they believe God loves them because they have heard it said or have read it in the bible but in the depth of their hearts they do not experience the power and peace and joy of the abundant supply of God's love in their everyday lives because their "belief" is only a theory, not a reality of their heart. They have not come to know and believe the love which God has for them.
We were made by God to need love. He apparently made us this way so that we would seek and receive His love constantly. However our enemy has many lies about how we are not good enough, smart enough, or some other enough so that God cannot love us. He then reinforces these thoughts when we act or think in ways that brings the guilt of sin. Of course these thoughts from our enemy are lies and are completely false because God does not love us because we are something or because we are not something, because we have or have not done something, He loves us only and exclusively because it is His nature to love.
It is something like with a newborn baby. The baby's mother loves it while it has done nothing to deserve her love in fact it cries and messes most of the time while it is awake and nevertheless she loves this child with an unending indescribable love. It is similar to God's love for us in that the baby can do nothing to increase or to decrease the mothers love for it. Likewise we cannot earn God's love by doing anything and we cannot do anything that will forfeit His love. His love is all about Who He is and is not affected by who we are or what we do or don't do. But our capacity to receive God’s love is all about what we believe deep in our heart of hearts.
John 14:6 (NASB77) 6 Jesus * said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
So how do we replace the lies that we have believed for most of our lives with truth. Jesus said that He is the way the truth and the life. If we are to be successful in receiving all the love God has for us we will need to draw near to Jesus. We need to ask Him for His help. For our part we will need to remind ourselves several times each day that Jesus loves us this I know for the Bible tells us so.
Revelation 1:5 (Darby) 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, (emphasis added)
There are many verses in the Bible that tell us of God's love. We need to become familiar with these passages. We need to place these around our house. We need to teach them to our children. We need to memorize several of them so they are always available. Because we need to quote these to ourselves and to our enemy when he tries to pull over his lies and cause us to fear.
1 John 4:18 (Darby) 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has torment, and he that fears has not been made perfect in love.
Perfect love casts out fear, but our enemy wants us to operate as much as possible on the basis of fear. Fear and faith cannot coexist. We will either trust or fear it is impossible to do both at the same time. So when we operate on the basis of fear we cannot trust and without trust our enemy knows we will be separated from the power and peace and the joy that God desires to provide to those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6 (AMP) 6 But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].
As God's dearly loved children we were never designed to function without God's love. And we do not function nearly to our capacity except when we are living in the warm womb of His amazing love. Just as a human child does not function well without its parents love we likewise do not function to our capacity with out receiving the fullness of our heavenly Father’s love.
God’s love is the center piece of our relationship with God. Just as a parents love is the centerpiece of their relationship with their children. When we do not believe God’s love for us is real, in the depth of our hearts, we are in effect calling God a liar. And we are actually buying into the lies flowing forth from our enemy! The more of God's love we receive the more capacity we have to love God (as we are commanded to do). Receiving God’s love also allows us to love the other people God has placed in our lives; in our family, in our church, at our work, and in our community which is precisely God’s plan for us as His ambassadors of His love.
1 John 3:11 (Darby) 11 For this is the message which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another:
God's love is a little like the flu. It is very contagious. But to be contagious it must be the real thing from THE authentic source. We must not settle for the lies of Satan or the lies of this world or even the lies we have told ourselves in the past. If we listen to the truth and only to the truth we will grow in our capacity to receive and to pass on the love of God.
Romans 8:37-39 (Darby) 37 But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us.38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing outside of ourselves can separate us from God’s love. Regarding this question as in all issuse of life God has given us choice. That choice is what shall we believe? It is critical in each of our lives, even as it was for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we must believe the truth in order to experience the life God has planned. If we believe lies, we will to some extent experience death. Life or death, it is our choice. What will you believe? Every aspect of your life will be significantly impacted by the extent of your knowing and believing God’s powerful personal love.
Jeff Williams
|
