Knowing That God Loves You

July 17 (John 21:23)

Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”  (ESV)

One of the biggest challenges people face in accepting God’s goodness, His love, and His grace is the pain and suffering of others.  If I really believe that God guided my decision on something at work, how can I square that with His apparent absence in an atrocity where innocent people died?  Can I truly accept that He was involved in a small detail of my life but not in a far more significant matter of life and death?

I can only answer for the events of my own life.  You can only answer for yours.  We can use reasoning and logic with regard to free will and the fallen nature of mankind to try to understand horrific acts and God’s presence in them, but at the end of the day, I do not know why He does not reach in and stop tragedies.  The only thing I can do is look at what He has done in my own life.

And what do I find when I look at that record?  He has spoken to me countless times through Scripture, through the words of others, and in the depths of my heart.  He has guided me and provided for me.  He has heard my prayers and answered them.  He has saved me.  I cannot speak to anyone else’s experience of God, only to mine, and in the words of Joshua 24:15, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, because as Paul once said to Timothy, I know whom I have believed (2 Timothy 1:12).

Father, You know how difficult it is at times for me to accept that You love me.  Satan wants me to look at so many things to convince me that You don’t.  Yet when I stop and look at things clearly and calmly, I see at once Your immense love and grace for me.  Thank You, Father.  May I walk always in close and confident relationship with Jesus, Who more than anything or anyone, is the living proof of that love.  In His name I pray, amen.

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins

The Worth Of a Person

July 10 (Matthew 6:26)

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  (ESV)

John 3:16 declares that He loved us so much that He sent His Son to us.  Jesus Himself taught about the worth of human beings in the verse for today and again in Matthew 10:29-31 and Matthew 12:11-12.  Despite that it says in Genesis 1:26 that God made human beings in His image, it took the life and work of Jesus to get the world to understand that.  Ponder that for a moment in these words from the classic Christmas song “O Holy Night.”

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

Worth does not stem from our ability to do something, as the verse for today clearly teaches.  Our worth is based on not one physical or mental attribute.  Your worth, my worth, and the worth of each person from conception to the grave is based solely on the declaration of God, a declaration made in the act of creation itself and the words and work of Jesus.

This means that you have worth in the eyes of God Almighty.  And so does your cousin.  And your neighbor at the end of your street.  The same goes for your colleague.  And the people with whom you disagree most passionately on the truly important issues.  And those with whom you disagree on the trivial stuff.  The lady serving at the food pantry?  She has value.   And so does the pornographer.  And the one who will blow up a building tomorrow.  And the ones who will hold the hands of the wounded and dying in the aftermath.  Those who look like you, and those who don’t.  And they…we…all have worth for no other reason than the simple fact that God made us and loves what He made.  No one has made that more clear than Jesus Christ, Who offers true and full life forever to anyone Who follows Him.

What an amazing gift of love You have shown us, O God, by proving to us our value to You through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  May we be forever grateful, savoring it completely, and sharing it with others with the same love and grace we have received.  In the name of Jesus, amen.

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins

God Loves You...Really

April 10 (1 John 4:16)

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  (ESV)

“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” is a blues standard dating back to 1923 and covered by everyone from Bessie Smith to Eric Clapton.  There is a reason it is a musical standard.  It speaks the truth.  Our world is based on performance, evaluations, and productivity.  If you have something to contribute, great, but if not, get lost.  We see it in sports, business, education, government, and even in relationships.

Now set that aside and listen to a man who walked and talked with Jesus.  John knows something different.  He knows about love, not greeting card love and certainly not the perverse carnival of self-centeredness that passes for love in popular culture.  Real, true, sober, no-frills, honest-to-goodness love is what God offers through Jesus.  That love dwells within us thanks to the Holy Spirit.  It is a love that grounds you, protects you, comforts you, directs you, strengthens you, supports you, encourages you, nourishes you, nurtures you, calls you, inspires you, challenges you, rebukes you, corrects you, and draws you ever closer to its source, the God of the universe Who sacrificed His life so you could live.

Do you seriously think that kind of love is contingent upon how productive you are or even upon how good you are?  The kind of love John is talking about is so far beyond our comprehension and our sins that it triumphed over death.  Come on, now.  Do you really believe that God does not love you?

Father, it is easy to believe that You do not love me when I listen to the voices of the world, the voice of my enemy, and even my own voice.  Yet when I listen to You and the words You have spoken through Scripture, the message is clear.  You really do love me.   Thank You!  Help me to walk and talk, to breathe and think in nothing but the love You have shown me in Christ Jesus, in Whose name I pray, amen.

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins

God Loves You No Matter What You Think

February 21 (Romans 8:38-39)

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.   No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (NLT)

God will not love me when I screw up again.  Yes, He will and He does.  God will not love me when I doubt His love.  Yes, He will and He does.  God will not love me if I am not reading my Bible as I should or am too tired to participate in that ministry at church.  Yes, He will and He does.  God does not love me because He allowed tragedy to strike my loved ones and me.  Yes, He does.  God does not love me because I hate him for not saving me from that deep wound that has wrecked my life.  Yes, He does.  God does not love me because there is no god.  Yes, He does.

These words that Paul wrote the Christians in Rome are among the most powerful that God ever put into the mind of any person to write.  His love is dependent on absolutely nothing.  It does not even depend on whether we believe He exists, although Satan would have us believe otherwise.  Our enemy will play on our fears, appeal to fallen human reasoning, and bring up our hurts and our wounds over and over again.  He will do anything he can every moment of every day to convince us that God does not love us.

I should know.  There is more evidence of God’s love in my life than I could list, but still that nagging thought returns.  God will not love me if….  Friends, when you are facing the darkness and everything…everything…in your physical senses, your emotions, and your intellect tells you that God does not love you, take your stand and proclaim these verses.  Whether you believe it in that moment or not, God does love you.

Father, I need to feel Your love right now.  I need to feel You close beside me.  In those dark moments when You seem so far away, turn my heart and my mind back to Your loving face through the words of Scripture and the sweet whisper of the Holy Spirit.  I know Your love is real because Jesus proved it with His life, and so it is in His name I ask this.  Amen.  

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins