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.
When we are able to trust in God’s love it releases us to relax which is a powerful experience. Before trust we have fear, doubt, anger, questions and anxiety. But when we trust in, settle down in it, relax in it, rest in it, Paul says “nothing can separate us from the love of God!” Paul outlines a series of those realities that confront us.
Natural realities - Death-Life-Fears-Worries-Sky-Ocean
Supernatural realities - Angels-Demons-Hell
- Jewish Rabbis had a legend (St. Paul use to be a Rabbi before his conversion). The legend believed that the angels worked hard to keep God’s favor from humanity because they were mad that God wanted to share himself with us. Paul was drawing on his Rabbi teaching. I can’t think Paul held to the legend but he knew others did and so to them he said, “the angels can’t keep us from God’s love for us!”
Paul’s point: “Nothing can separate us from God’s love”!
WARNING issued by one writer: If given permission to have a place in our lives “it is terribly possible to put one’s self beyond the effective love of God and to become…unaffected by the graciousness and faithfulness of his love.” For this reason, Jude’s words in the book of Jude in the Bible are important, “Live in such a way that God’s love can bless you” or in an earlier translation “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” (Verse 21) If we are to rest in God’s love we must draw on the resources we have – decide to trust God and lean on the science of his love (believe). Then when the realities mentioned hit us we can rest in the storms.
1. Trust issue
2. Trust enough to believe he loves you
3. Trust enough to rest in it
When we finally grow to the point of resting in God’s love we can
4. TRUST ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THROUGH IT.
Verse 37 – “More than conquerors”
Not only can we overcome the enemies that would try to separate us from God’s love, we can take the weapons they would have used against us and use it against them!
E.g. – When the devil says, “You’re worthless” we can grab that weapon of low self-esteem and tell him “Not true! My worth is so significant that God gave Jesus for me. You’re worthless!” Why can we say that where before we couldn’t? It’s because we’ve learned to trust God and trusting God means when I can’t feel his love I pull the science of love which says, “It doesn’t matter what I feel or think – it doesn’t change the evidence that God loves me!” Now that we know God loves us we relax and rest because nothing gets to me that doesn’t get past him! Now we can overcome!
Life is often painful and tough, and doesn’t always make sense – “What advantage do we have over others? We have this advantage – “Nothing can separate us from God’s love which is given us in Jesus Christ.” (Speaker’s Bible)
WRAP
“He loves me!”
- Trust it?
- Believe it?
- When you can’t feel it will you trust the science of it – proof?
- Will you let go of your questions? Will you be released from your anxiety and fear?
