Believing in God’s love is a key to living the abundant life Jesus came to give you!

In the previous two blogs, we touched on the love and goodness of God (See “God’s Love Revealed – Jesus Our Savior” and “God Has Good Plans for You in 2019”). Let’s go a little deeper. God is good, because He is love. When you truly realize and believe God’s love for you, you can be assured that He has only good things for you.  When you look at the world today, you might question or doubt God’s goodness. Because of sin, what you are seeing in the world today is not a perfect reflection of God’s love and goodness as was seen at creation (Genesis 1-3).

God had given Adam and Eve dominion over the earth, blessed them and had said that everything He created was good, very good (Genesis 1:26-31). They had a perfect world but they didn’t trust in God’s love as seen by disobeying the one command God gave them (Genesis 3:1-6; 11-13). When they sinned by disobeying God, their sin allowed the devil to take over dominion of the world and mankind bringing death, sickness, poverty and all manner of evil.

Since the fall of man, we have seen evil in the world and evil people prosper. There are many scriptures in the Bible where the writers are asking God “How long will the wicked triumph?” (Psalm 94:3). But God also responds that the wicked will not prosper (Proverbs 11:21) and in the end, they will receive their judgment.

We need to trust that God is at work and to see with our minds eye or imagination to see what God is doing and not just what evil has done. There is an invisiible world of grace, love, hope, etc. We often think God is doing nothing because we can’t see what He is doing. Because we can see what evil is doing, we think it is in control but it isn’t!

God had a plan to redeem mankind and the world back to Himself through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Jesus defeated the devil and has made a way for us to have a relationship with God and get the blessing back to man   (2 Corinthians 5:19) once again through His shed blood and has put the world back into the hands of those who believe in Him. We will not see the fullness of the earth’s and mankind’s redemption until the end of the age when Jesus returns to the earth and there will be a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21).

In the meantime, God works through those that belong to Christ. We are His representatives here on earth, have been equipped to do the work of His kingdom and to be a blessing to others. Prayer in the Name of Jesus gives heaven permission to proceed to show up with all the victory Christ has won for us over the devil through His death and resurrection. He has given believers, (the church or the body of Christ) authority to use His name in taking dominion over situations and circumstances in our lives, families, nations and in the earth.

Everything God says and does is from a place of love, because God is love. Satan wants to divert our attention from God’s love. He lies about Him and tries to make us think God is behind all the evils and troubles in the world today. So, when things go wrong don’t blame God. The devil wants us to blame God so our faith in God will crumble, then he will steal everything we have! Remember the devil steals, kills and destroys (John 10:10). When you have faith in God’s love for you, you have faith in God.

Faith is seeing Jesus in His love for you (Ephesians 3:17-19). Jesus spoke Words of love when He was dying on the cross when He said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). God’s goodness and love can be seen in the person of Jesus when He was here on the earth. He represents the Father (John 5:19; 10:30; 14:6-10) and Jesus said in John 16:27 that “the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and believed that I came forth from God.”

Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). We don’t have to see or understand everything that happens in our lives at the moment, but we can look to Jesus and trust that God is good, He is good at being God and He will work all things out for good for those who believe and follow Him (Romans 8:28). When we truly know and believe that we are loved by God, we can trust Him with our lives and in any situation or circumstance that we may find ourselves in.

God created us to operate on His love. That is how we become whole. God the Father is approachable through Jesus Christ. When you receive Jesus as your personal Savior, the very love of God is poured into your heart by His Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) and that love will grow if we allow it to be developed  because it is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23). 1 John 3:1 reminds us that it is because of God’s love for us that He calls us His children (2 Corinthians 6:18; John 1:12; Romans 8:15).

The only thing that can change our lives is the love of God. Trusting in God means believing He loves you, He is good, He has the power to help you and that He will! What I have discovered is that I can only trust God when I really get to know Him and I am in relationship with Him. Spending time with Him by meditating on the Word of God, in prayer and worshiping Him brings true intimacy and fellowship with Him!

Because God loves you, He wants to meet your needs and for you to be blessed and prosper in every area of your life! Remember, He is the Good Shepherd and it is His love that gives you all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17).  When you depend on Him, you will not lack anything (Psalm 23:1). But we must learn to trust God and the power of His love. There are steps we can take to believe God loves us by trusting Him, trusting in His Word, His Name and the integrity of His character (i.e. His goodness, mercy, grace, etc.).

Learn to trust His love; His love to save, heal, deliver, provide and protect etc. His love does great things and when you know you are loved, you do great things! When we have fear, worry, or lack of trust, it means we don’t believe the love of God. Believe in His love. Live in the revelation that God loves you. It will change your life!