1 John 4:16 says, ‘We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and when we stay in love, we stay in God, and God stays in us.’
You may know that God cares for you and loves you. You might even know that He showed His love by dying on the cross for you. But do you truly believe it?
It’s one thing to know these things in your head, but it’s another to feel them deep in your heart. It is one thing to know that the sun shines on us during the day; it is another thing to believe that the sun is still shining even though we don’t feel its warmth, and all we see are dark clouds. Similarly, when life gets tough, it can be hard to believe in God’s love.
But God wants you to know and believe that He loves you in the midst of the deal falling through, when that job is slow in coming, when the boss is fault-finding, or when your child refuses to come home. In the midst of the pain, He wants you to know and believe that He is wholly on your side, defending and taking care of you. God wants you to know and believe His love, even when things go wrong. He’s on your side, taking care of you, defending you. If God, the most powerful being, is on your side, who can successfully stand against you?
Perhaps you feel like you have messed up really badly. God wants you to know and believe that, even if others are angry with you, He isn’t. He won’t condemn you. The sum total of His anger against your sins fell upon Jesus at the cross. When you feel unworthy because you have just blown it for the umpteenth time, know and believe that your heavenly Father still offers you the gift of ‘no condemnation’ – the gift of grace and forgiveness. Go to your Father and ask for it! No wonder the Bible says in Hebrews 4:16, ‘Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’
My friend, know and believe that since He loved you and died for you while you were still a sinner, at your worst and ugliest, how much more is His love for you now that you are His beloved child and enjoy the righteousness of God in Christ: ‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’ 2 Cor 5:21. You can be sure:
- God values you.
- God loves you.
- Your sin has already been paid for.
- He cared for you even before you knew Him.
- God has already provided for your redemption.
- You only have to believe…
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Author
kay.alli@legalview.co.uk