"God Loves You"

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 

I felt this morning that the Lord wanted me to remind you that He loves you. His love for you is unending. His love for you is unconditional. His love for you is always there. You may try to run from His love, but you will never be able to. You may try to outrun it, but you can't. You may try to deny it, but it still exists. You may try to turn from it, but you can't get away from it. You may even reject it, but you can't quench it. Nothing can separate you from the love that God has for you. 

 

When you examine your own self, do you wonder how He could love you? Do you feel undeserving and unworthy of His love? Well, you are. We don't deserve God's love. We have done nothing to earn it. We are not worthy of it. But He loves us anyway, not on the merits of what we have done, but on the merits of His own Divine nature.

 

Your mistakes, your sins, your rejection, your unworthiness, will never be greater than His love for you. His love is greater than our sins. It never changes toward us. When Adam sinned in the garden, God did not stop loving him. Adam's sin broke their fellowship but not God's love for him. God loved him so much that although He knew that Adam would disobey and rebel against Him before He even created him, He already had a plan in place to bring him back to Himself. It was a plan of love-- "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8-NKJV)

 

God is all about love. And He is all about loving you.

 

Have a great day. God loves you, and don't forget it.

 

For further reading:

Romans 8:31-39

"Where Are You Dwelling?"

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91:1 

Where are you dwelling/living? Where is your place of abode? I am not talking about your physical address, I am talking about your spiritual dwelling place. Are you dwelling in the place of bitterness? Bitter because of something that happened to you in the past. Are you dwelling in the place of unforgiveness because someone mistreated you? Are you dwelling in anger? Are you dwelling in fear? Where we dwell spiritually is a choice- no one can force us into a place of residence- we choose to move there.

 

The dwelling place for a Christian is under the shadow of the Almighty God. It is a dwelling place of peace and joy and faith and love and righteousness. No one can evict you from that place. If you "move out" of that dwelling, you do it by choice also.

 

"Where do you choose to dwell/live?". I choose to dwell in the Presence of the Lord. I choose to dwell in peace. I choose to dwell in truth. I choose to dwell in joy. I choose to dwell in His everlasting care. I choose not to dwell-- and will not dwell-- in anger, bitterness, fear, discouragement, etc. Those are not the dwelling places He has prepared for us. Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us and then return for us and take us there. Well, He has also prepared a place for us to dwell in here until He returns for us. That place is the dwelling place of abundant life. Is that the dwelling place you choose to live in? Or will you choose to live/dwell in the place of defeat and despair?

 

Have a great day. The place where you dwell spiritually is by choice-- you choose to dwell there. 

 

For further reading:

Psalm 90:1

John 14:1; 10:10

"Reasoning Away Miracles"

"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." Mark 9:23 

Why is it so hard for us to believe for healing, miracles and deliverance? We say that God can do it, but we don't act like He can. I believe some of the reason why is because we "talk ourselves out of them". We "reason" it away. Let me explain.

 

We come up with all kinds of reasons why it won't happen. Here are some of them.

1) It may not be His will. "And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." (Matthew 8:2,3)

 

2) We reason that because the disease is "big"- like cancer, the "Big C"- or because it is one that there is no cure for God can't heal it. "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?" (Mark 2:9) It is all the same to the Lord. He doesn't see "big" or "small". Healing cancer or AIDS is as easy for Him as healing a toothache. 

 

3) I have had this illness for so long-- for years-- so it is too late to receive a healing. "And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years... came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched." (Luke 8:43,44) "And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." (John 5: 5,6,8)

 

4) I am suffering for my sins. This is my cross to bear. "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (John 9:2,3)  "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." (Psalms 103:3)

 

5) God put this on me so I must suffer for His glory. "But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" (Matthew 12:24-26) If God puts the sickness on us but He also heals sickness, then He is divided against His own self and working against Himself. He doesn't, therefore, He doesn't put it on us. 

 

The thing we must stop doing is listening to the voice of our own reasoning. Our reasoning is often false reasoning. We need to listen to what God says to us through His Word. Jesus came to show us the Father and teach us what His will is concerning us. So, look at Jesus, look at His life, look at what He did. He only did what the Father told Him to do. He only did the will of His Father. What did He do? "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." (Acts 10:38) Then that must be the will of the Heavenly Father. 

 

Have a great day. Stop listening to the voice of your own reasoning and start listening to the Lord and you will see miracles, healing and deliverance take place. 

 

For further reading:

John 5:19

"A Boat"

"And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him." Matthew 8:23 

During Jesus' ministry there were times when He and the disciples would travel on foot from place to place. At other times they would need the aid of a boat to get to their destination. When they used a boat, they would only use it for the purpose of crossing the sea but would then dock it when they reached the shore. They would not use it again until the time came that they needed to re-cross the sea.

 

The thought occurred to me that many times we treat Jesus like He is a "boat". When we are facing storms, problems, difficulties or have a need, we will go to Him and "undock" Him by turning to Him for help. But once the situation is over, we "tie Him back up" and put Him to the side going about our own business and doing our own thing. We keep Him "on the side" until we have a "need" or "use" for Him.

 

He is not a "boat" to use only when sailing the deep waters of life. He is not a vessel to get into when we are facing a certain problem. We don't get in and out of Him, we don't tie Him up and come back to Him later when we have a specific need. He is our life vessel. We live in Him. We hide our lives in Him. We never depart from Him. He is our dwelling place. Not just some instrument that we use from time to time. Or some vehicle that makes life easier during troublesome times.

 

Are you treating Him like He is a boat? Do you only go to Him when you have a need? Do you only acknowledge Him when you need His help? Or is He just there to use in certain times? Do you keep Him "tied" up in waiting until you get ready to "use" Him again to solve your problem? He is not like a boat to be tied up awaiting further use at a later time. He should be active and a part of our lives every day.

 

Have a great day. Do you treat the Lord like He is something that you only need from time to time for certain situations?

 

For further reading:

Acts 17:28

Colossians 3:3

Psalm 91:1

"Believe God's Word"

"There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification." 1 Corinthians 14:10 

The other day the Lord impressed a word on my heart. The word was, "Am I not faithful as promised? My people believe the reports and words of men, but they don't believe My words. Am I a man that I should lie?"

 

How is it that we pay more attention, give heed to, and give credence and credibility to the words of men yet we don't believe what God says? We will listen to the doctors. We listen to what the economy says. We listen to what the government says. We listen to what the voice of fear says. We listen to all those around us and we believe what they say. Yet we won't listen to God's words and believe them.

 

We will take sixteen pills a day because the doctor says to do it. We will get ourselves so deep in debt that we will never see daylight because pride says we have to have the biggest and the best. We will let go of faithful and loving relationships because selfishness says, "I am not getting what I want." We will hang on to something we should have let go of a long time ago because fear says, "You can't make it without it."

 

The Bible says that there are many voices. There are a whole lot more voices that speak to us each day than I have named. But there is only one voice that is the voice of truth. All other voices are either just mere facts (true to a point), subject to change, deceptive or false. That one voice of truth is the voice of God. He is the only one who can speak truth... and everything that He speaks is Truth! 

 

So why are we giving so much heed and attention to the voices that surround us each day and no attention to the voice of the Lord? Am I saying that we should not listen to some of these voices? Of course not, the Lord often speaks through them. But what I am saying is why do we put our faith and trust in those voices/words, yet disregard the voice of the Lord when He speaks to us? His words are the only words we can truly put our faith and confidence in because His are the only ones that are truth... the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

 

Have a great day. Who's words are you listening to and putting your faith in?

 

For further reading:

John 17:17

Numbers 23:19