Trust In God’s Love More

God loves you! Yes, you! Whether that’s something you can easily believe or you struggle to comprehend, it doesn’t change God’s love for you. Regardless of how you feel, God loves you. In fact, God can’t help but love you - because God is Love and Love is God (1 John 4:7-8). It’s who He is and it’s what He does.
When Jesus came into this world and lived, only to give up His life for our salvation, that was God expressing His love for us. “Greater love has no one than this,” the Word says, “than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13, NKJV).

Jesus laid down His life that we might live – and that we might live a life of being loved, of being able to believe in love, and out of His love, to love one another. John wrote, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).

It was Jesus who instructed us saying, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).

The fact that God loves you is a truth God wants you to trust in every day of your life. It’s something He wants you to meditate on and renew your heart and mind to believe fully. It’s truth He wants you to develop in your spiritual walk – so you can love Him, love yourself and love others.

He’s called us to walk in love. “Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]. And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance” (Ephesians 5:1-2, AMPC).

We’re to imitate God by walking in love. But how can we walk in love if we don’t fully believe the love God has for us? Truthfully, we can’t. That’s why believing God’s love and trusting in His love for us is something we have to develop spiritually. It’s OK if, right now, you honestly don’t feel He loves you. Oftentimes, we don’t feel deserving of God’s love, but that changes nothing in how God feels toward us. He loves each and every one of us fully. Completely. Without holding back.

Wherever you might fall on the spectrum of fully receiving and believing God’s love, there’s always room to grow. And considering the days in which we live, now is the time to Trust In God’s Love More than ever before.

Faith Works by Love

Galatians 5:6-7 says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (NKJV). For our faith to work optimally, we must believe the love God has for us. We’re going to have to walk in love, which means walking in such a way that we forgive easily and quickly, that we think the best of others, and that we give people the benefit of the doubt before we rush into judgment (1 Corinthians 13).

When Jesus preached in Capernaum, He performed many miracles there (Mark 5). But when He came to His own hometown of Nazareth, the Word says, “because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:5-6). The Word doesn’t say that He would not, or that He chose not to; it says that He could not.

We want our faith to work, and for it to continue being effective in our lives, we will need to develop our Trust In God’s Love More.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Faith works by love, and there is no fear in love – because God is Love and there is no fear in God. And yet, fear is what comes against us time and time again to destroy our faith. Kenneth Copeland has said, “Fear tolerated is faith contaminated.” Fear weakens our spirit man, our soul and our body. So how do we strengthen our faith so we don’t allow fear to contaminate it?

Well, when John told us that God is Love, he also said, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:16-19).

Don’t let the word perfect in these verses throw you. God isn’t saying we’re to be flawless in our love; He’s saying we’re to develop our love. The Greek word translated perfect means “developing.” We’re to be continually developing our love, because what we practice, we develop. We “perfect.” So, we’re to practice believing and trusting in God’s love for us.

God doesn’t want us having any fear in our lives, because fear has torment. It gives the enemy entrance into our lives. It’s also having faith in the wrong thing – in something’s ability to hurt us, like a disease, a storm or perhaps a person. Despite how real fear can feel in our lives, the enemy can’t touch us without fear to connect us to him – the same way that faith connects us to God. Faith works by love and there’s no fear in love…and faith casts our fear!

When fear comes against us, and we begin to surrender to its effects, it shows us that we need to continue developing God’s love in our inner man. It shows us where we need to Trust In God’s Love More.

The Holy Spirit Helps Us Trust In God’s Love

When Jesus left this earth, He gave us the third person of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who fills our spirit when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives. It’s then that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, as the Word says. “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:5).

Like everything God gave us when we made Jesus our Lord, love – His love that filled our hearts – has to be developed. If you struggle to truly believe God loves you, that love has filled you, that you can walk in love, and that you can love others, then ask the Holy Spirit – your Helper – to help you.

It was Jude who said, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 20-21, NKJV).

Praying in tongues is another tool God’s given us to keep ourselves walking in love. Why? Because praying in tongues is a practice that empowers our spirit. “A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally” (1 Corinthians 14:4). What’s more, the Word also says, “The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble” (Proverbs 18:14, AMPC).

Does your spirit man need to be strengthened? So you can Trust In God’s Love More? Use one more of the tools God gave you; pray in the spirit!

Believe the Love

Faith in God’s love should be a part of our everyday life. It should be something we revere and esteem because it comes from God. Yet, we live in world where we often use the word love casually. We say things like, “I love my new shirt. I love chocolate ice cream. I love playing baseball.”

But 1 John 2:15 tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (NKJV). This doesn’t mean that we’re not supposed to have things or do what we enjoy, but once we’re born again – once the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts – we’re to renew our minds to understand the power and significance of Love Himself. We’re to love God. We’re to love His Word. We’re to love His people. We’re to walk in His love. We’re to believe the love. We’re to Trust In God’s Love More and more every day – because He loves us unconditionally and completely.