“There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because He first loved us.” {1 John 4:18-19}
Do you ever feel like you’re always failing God? Sometimes you feel confident in your love for Him because you’ve been doing things right, things you think He required for you to do, and then in a moment of weakness your feelings do a one-eighty on you and you feel like you’re an utter failure when it comes to pleasing God? At that moment you even feel despair in your heart that you will never ever please God again. And then you feel, “How then will He ever love me again?”
Such is the trick of the enemy to get us away from God. Satan prefers we look at ourselves and put a microscope on our weaknesses, instead of moving that microscope away from us and focusing it on the one who never changes and on the one who never fails, Jesus Christ. Satan wants us to stay defeated. He doesn’t want us looking at Jesus for His perfection because that will bring us out of our depression and give glory to God. He works hard on getting us to wallow in our failures and disappointments so that we will stop talking to the Lord. When we feel like such an utter failure we will convince ourselves that God can’t possibly love us anymore. So we wouldn’t want to talk to Him anymore. Don’t fall for it. This is what the Lord tells me every time this happens to me: “Stop focusing on your weaknesses and what you can’t do. Instead focus on Me and what I can do.” Because it’s the truth, I fail. I am human. I am not perfect. Likely as long as I live I will come short of the glory of God. The sooner I accept this before the Lord the sooner my relationship with Him will get better and better. But the Lord never fails. He never comes up short. He is faithful in His love for us until the end. Even when I feel like He should not love me anymore He continues to love me. Even when I feel like I’ve been so stubborn and disobedient and He can’t possibly love and forgive me again, His love for me is perfect and endures as long as I live. His love for me is not based on how good I am. His love for me is based on how good He is.
But the key is in not looking at my imperfections and in my weaknesses but rather focusing my thoughts and my desires to who Jesus is. Every time the thought comes to me of how I’ve failed this test He might have given me, or disappointed Him in not being pronto in obeying Him, I force myself to look at the Lord’s faithfulness in His love for me and in who He is. How good and how loving He is. He tells me again whenever I feel this way about myself, “Move on. Love Me.”
Whenever He says, “Love Me” I know what He means. It means I thank Him for forgiving me of my sins and my shortcomings and those many times I thought I failed Him. I thank Him for continuing to love me despite of my shortcomings. I thank Him for giving His life for me at the cross and dying for my sins so that I can be forgiven and love Him freely today. Then I focus on who He is. How wonderful and kind and giving. I focus on His attributes and remember the things He’s done for me. I also read His word and His great works to magnify His goodness in my life instead of my failures.
Even if my feelings (and Satan) try to bring up the shame of my failures, I push past them. Instead of being ashamed of my failures I accept them. I talk to the Lord about them. I tell Him, “Father, I have failed you because I am not perfect. I wish I was, but then if I were, why then would I need you? Why then would you need to die for my sins if I never do wrong? I am glad that you did die for my sins because I need you so much. I am not good, but you are. And I am glad that you do know how much I need you in this life. I am glad that you do know how sad it makes me feel to disappoint you and fail you. But I love you because you love me. I love you because your love is perfect for me. You will never ever stop loving me. Your strength is made perfect in my weakness. I thank you for working on me to be perfect and holy like you. That one of these days I will learn to automatically keep my eyes on your love for me and not on my weaknesses. Next time you will help me to obey you because you are my strength and my righteousness. You will help me to be more and more like you as long as I keep my eyes on you and not on myself.”
This is always my answer again and again. When the Lord tells me, “Move on, and love Me,” I take my focus off myself and focus on who He is and I love Him. That is my answer all the time. I love Him, even when I don’t feel like I have any right to loving Him, I love Him anyway. It never fails me. He comes through with His love for me and He lifts me up. When the temptation comes to wallow in my shortcoming and in my failures, I push past them and love Jesus. I love Jesus because He never fails. His love for me is true until the end. I find my strength in Him. I find my righteousness in Him and glory in Him. I stop looking at my own grading system and checklist of how to please God, and instead just focus on who He is and on His great love for me. I remember how perfect He is and ignore my feelings of being a failure.
Instead of fighting and fighting to be righteous, I accept my sinful and wretched nature. I accept my foolish nature. I accept my weaknesses. I humble myself to the Lord and say, “You are righteous Lord God and you are holy. Be merciful upon me and forgive me and let my heart rejoice in who you are and in your love for me.”
Again and again Love is my answer to discouragements and to negative thoughts that the enemy of my soul hurls against me: Love God. I love Him and worship Him and glory in Him (instead of myself) and before you know it I am flying high. He lifts me up above the earth, above my failures and foolishness, and all I can see is heaven. I can now see His throne and His face. I can now feel His presence and His goodness in my life because I’ve placed my focus on Him instead of myself. I believe in His ability and power to change me and bring His goodness in my life. I love Him and He has lifted me up. I no longer feel bad about myself. He does the work of righteousness in my life, not me. I no longer feel like a failure. I am not afraid anymore. Now I feel triumphant and an overcomer because Jesus has come through for me again. His love has come through for me again and I know that this is the secret to my happiness in this life: Love Jesus. And His love will turn around and lift me up. Love is my answer.
“There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. ” {1 John 4:18}
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” {2 Corinthians 12:9}
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” {John 15:4}
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” {1 John 4:8-10}
“We love him, because He first loved us.” {1 John 4:19}
