We are continuing our study how we as Christians must begin to go deeper in our relationship with the Lord and build a stronger foundation in the following 4 areas of our lives:
1 – Deeper relationship with God
2 – Deeper understanding of God’s Word
3 – Deeper in God’s love
4 – Deeper planting in a church of His choice
Last issue, we touched on the importance of studying and meditating on God’s Word, the Bible. This issue, we are going to look at how important it is to know that God truly does love you and to rest in that foundational truth.
Many believers, though they have been born-again and have been a Christian for years, still struggle with condemnation and a fear that somehow God doesn’t really love or care about them or that He is constantly displeased with them. I personally struggled with this for many years. Though I was saved, walking with God and involved in active ministry, I struggled with the feeling that I could never quite please Him. Though I “mouthed” a loving, caring God to others that blessed their lives, I myself had this inner struggle. Then, a few years ago at a men’s retreat held by our church network, there was an altar call during one of our services for the men to lay down all of our burdens, struggles and hidden sins at the cross for Jesus. I went up to that altar along with several others and bowed my knees before the Lord. And as I did, God met me in a very unusual way. I had an epiphany at that altar that completely changed my life. It was as if I could see my entire life pass right before my eyes up until the present. I saw all the times that even as a teenager and young man how God had His hand on my life, protecting me and getting me through many situations despite the many mistakes that I had made (and there were many!). I saw that even as a so-called young “Atheist”, how he still provided for me. I saw how He had delivered me from a drug habit and kept me from taking it further which could have killed me and how He brought me into an incredible life changing “born-again” salvation experience, which completely turned my life around in the late 1970’s. But the thing that impacted me the most that day was something that I had recently found out.
Not too long before that encounter, I found out that I was adopted. Imagine, finding out in a later stage of your life that the parents who raised you were not your biological parents? (This did not change my love for them one bit and as far as I am concerned, they will always be my Dad and Mom). When I found out, I did have an initial “moment”, but didn’t struggle too much with it because I knew that my true identity was in Christ according to the Scripture. Here’s what affected me the most that day: whoever my biological mother was, she decided to give me over to a couple that she knew would take care of me. But I saw it as God’s amazing love in preserving my life and placing me into the hands of two people who would love me and raise me as their own. Honestly, I could have easily been aborted, but God preserved me. And as a result of that, I have four beautiful grown children and a grandson who would have never existed had I just been “snuffed out” back then.
After this encounter and seeing all that God had done throughout my years, how he had preserved me as a child, delivering me into the hands of a loving couple to raise me, delivered me from Atheism, delivered me from a drug habit that could have gotten worse and ordering and guiding my steps through many trials and crisis, and bringing us from Long Island, NY to Broadway, Virginia, placing us in a loving church family, I finally had a revelation of how much God really loved and cared for me. And I have never struggled with questioning His love for me again. Here’s what Scripture says, and I pray that we may all have this revelation from God’s Word:
Romans 5:8 – NLT – But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Even when we were sinners, being obstinate, hateful, and disbelieving, God still loved us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross of Calvary to atone for our sins. (John 3:16).
I’ve learned that there is a difference between condemnation and conviction. The devil, our enemy, who is always looking to vilify and devour us (1 Peter 5:8) brings condemnation. The Holy Spirit of God gently and sometimes firmly convicts you in love. Those who are in Christ and are obeying Him, being subject to His Word and the Holy Spirit are not under condemnation.
Romans 8:1-2 – NLT – So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
So, my encouragement to all is to be secure in the love of God. Know that He loves you and be firmly planted in that truth. Never let the enemy put you under a constant cloud of condemnation. And pray that God will give you insight into His heart for you. I leave you with this Scripture:
Lamentations 3:22-23 – NLT – The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.23 Great is his faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.
God Bless!
