He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

The childish art of love – pulling the petals from a flower and reciting, “(s)he loves me, (s)he loves me not” – left love to chance. Even rigged it because if you start a certain way you end up where you want to – “(s)he love me!” Prance off feeling hopeful that love has a chance!

The cry of the inner child remains the same. We desperately want someone to love us. Love me for me. Charles Spurgeon (English preacher of the 19th century) said, “God chose me before I was born; for he never would have chosen me afterwards!”

People struggle, as Spurgeon, that God has a tough time loving us. One needs only look at the pain and suffering of the world and like a star-nosed mole, the doubt creeps to the surface and challenges the idea of a loving God. Don’t know what to do with it. Many people go through a “loves me, loves me not” relationship with God.

There are a few things we need to address if we will know the thrill of God’s unconditional love and come to the experience of declaring emphatically, “He loves me!”

1. IT’S A TRUST ISSUE

Glandion Carney and William Long – book, “Trusting God Again”. Carney tells the story of 11 year-old Ron, an HIV patient. In speaking of trust, Carney writes, “Ron’s struggle was not simply to get better physically, but also to trust the great invisible God, when other visible forces were not much comfort at all.”

Trusting the invisible God is so critical to faith. It is to discover what St. Peter wrote about in 1 Peter 1:8 - You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy – result of trusting an invisible God.

What can you do when God seems invisible and you can’t find him it seems or feel him? Ruth Graham can tell us how. Broken marriage & family. Wrote of trusting God in “In every pew sits a broken heart”: “I came to a point where I saw the need to let go even of my questions. I would not have all the answers in this life. I knew that. In the meantime, I would have to make peace with God. I would have to choose to trust him and believe in his goodness without knowing the answers. That was the only way. Otherwise, I would not be able to go on.”

When we finally learn to trust the invisible God we begin to walk in love. When we’ve dealt with the trust issue, there is room for the science of God’s love –

2. TRUST ENOUGH TO BELIEVE HE LOVES YOU!

In the Courtroom of life, we must trust the fact of God’s love when we cannot experience the feeling of it. E.g. – we never question the science of the earth’s rotation, gravity, or the rising and setting lights of the sky. We know the fact of it as simply as the biological science of breathing and eating.

Imagine you are in life’s courtroom. I present Exhibit ‘A’ before the Court today!

8:32…

John 3:16-17…

1 John 3:16 – “we know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us…”

Looking at the evidence we can conclude He loves me!

Scholar William Barclay notes of Jesus, “He is not [at God’s right hand] to be our prosecuting counsel but to be the advocate to plead our cause.”

Verse 35 is usually enough to shake our confidence to believe. If God loves us, WHY?... (Verse highlights)

A: Because life happens. He didn’t create this mess – we did (Adam & Eve). We must live with our choices and accept the consequences. It’s an extension of what we call free will (the greatest evidence of love!). In spite of those ridiculous choices and behaviour God loves us through it all. Spurgeon again, “God chose me before I was born; for he never would have chosen me afterwards!”

God loves you! Whether you believe it or not, nothing’s changed. You cannot change the fact of it! Love is not about how good life is or isn’t. It is about how good God is no matter comes down the pipes! How good is He? He loves you!

1. Trust issue

2. Trust enough to believe he loves you

Only after we believe the fact of God’s love can we:

3. TRUST ENOUGH TO REST IN IT

8:35a and 38-39…

Three rotten apples from the same tree, that are common to most of us are feelings of being unworthy of God’s love, low self-esteem and fear of being inadequate to measure up to it. These and others, attempt to accuse us and dismiss the privilege of living in God’s love.