When you know you are loved perfectly without doubt or reservation, you have no fear. Isn’t it wonderful when you know someone loves you perfectly and without reservation? You know you can go to them anytime, because you know you are accepted. You can be yourself. You don’t have to pretend to be someone else. The Bible states,
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}
With Jesus, we can find that perfect love that casteth out fear. We don’t have to worry about what He thinks about us, we can be completely ourselves with the Lord because He loves us so much, and accepts us for who we are. He loves us so much that He laid down His life at the cross. He bled and died for our sins so that we can be set free, and be forgiven for anything we have done in the past and in the present. All we have to do is come boldly to Him, tell Him what we’ve done wrong, and ask for His grace and forgiveness. It’s that easy, confess, repent and find forgiveness. We are perfectly accepted and undeniably loved. As apostle Paul stated in his epistle:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. {Ephesians 1:5-6}
This means that God has determined it before the foundation of the world. Before we even came into existence He knew we would become His sons and His daughters, adopted into the family of God through our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is His will. It is His good pleasure. He has accepted us through the wonderful sacrifice Jesus Christ has done for us. We truly are loved, because He Himself came down in a body (He calls His Son) and allowed us to belong to Him. All we truly need is to open our hearts to Him and say to Him, “Yes, Lord I accept the love You offer to me.” That’s truly it. He will do the rest for us. He will bring about the process of making us His children, of making us the sons and daughters of God.
Sometimes though we think there is so much more to God’s love. Sometimes we think we have to earn it to find His forgiveness and His favor. But we have to believe it. There is nothing more we need to do but to simply talk to Him, confess to Him everything and anything we have done and are going through. He’s done everything already for us – suffered for our sake, died for our sake, and endured the cross for our sake. All we have to do is to come to Him and talk to Him with a repentant heart, and ask for His grace and forgiveness. We don’t have to do any penance or any “good works” to have God love us back. He loves us already from the start. Even while we were still sinning He loved us. {Romans 5:8} That is why He came here in the first place, because we were sinners and needed to be saved. He loves us so much that He was willing to be that sacrifice, that Lamb of God, to save the world from our sins. Jesus Christ gave Himself and died, and became the sacrifice that God was pleased with. Now there’s nothing more that we need to do but to return His love and affections. We return that love by talking to Him. We just need to trust in that love, have faith in that love, and find our rest and security in that love. All we need to do is talk to Him, make Him our friend, and love Him in return. Ask Him to be our Lord and our Savior, come into our hearts and into our lives, and be our God. Tell Him that He is welcome in our lives to be our God and friend. That’s all really. He needs to know that this is what we want Him to do for us, and He will do the rest. He will not force Himself onto anyone. Making friends with God is not automatic. You have to let Him know you want Him to be Your friend, then He will come to You. You don’t need to worry about how He’s going to come and be your God and friend. Just wait and see. He will do it for you if you let Him know that’s what you truly want.
Sometimes I go around feeling like I could never measure up to God’s expectations of me. Sometimes I tell the Lord, “I’m tired of feeling bad about myself, like I’m always doing something wrong or saying something stupid.” Do you know what He tells me? He tells me, “Talk to Me. What things are making you feel like you’re not good enough?” And I would tell Him in detail what made me feel bad. He likes these things. He likes listening to me tell what I feel about myself. It’s really very therapeutic, because in the process He deals with me in my thoughts and in my spirit. He lets me see things His way, and not the way I’ve been seeing things through my carnal mind. After awhile He makes me realize that all I have to do is love Him and tell Him how lost I am without Him. I tell Him He means so much to me and how I need Him so much in this life. Because in the process of my communion with Him, He’s made me feel better, He’s taken away the reproach that I’ve been feeling inside.
Many times these thoughts and feelings of inadequacy appear because we take our eyes off on Jesus. We place them on ourselves, comparing what other people have accomplished versus what we’ve accomplished. And remember too, what the scripture tells us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. {Revelation 12:10} Meaning he will try to accuse us, causing us to think that we’re not measuring up to God’s expectations of us. He likes to belittle us in our thoughts before God’s eyes. He will cast these thoughts in our minds without us even realizing that it’s Satan’s ideas all along. Because Satan wants us to stop loving God. Remember Satan is God’s enemy. And because we are very much loved by God, Satan will do everything in his power to steal us away from God, so that he can hurt God. He surely won’t want us to have God and be saved. Instead he would want us to put up a wall in our relationship with God and have us accuse God of being too hard on us. Satan brings these thoughts of insecurity by making us feel that we are not good enough in God’s eyes. But when you’re loved and you’re accepted, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done or not done. What matters is that you love the One who loves you in return. You tell Him your fears, you tell Him your sorrows, you tell Him everything that bothers you. That is how we love God back. We trust Him with our fears and insecurities. We tell Him everything. When you know you are loved fully you have nothing to fear.
When we do this, when we go to Him regardless of how we feel, whether great or terrible, He raises us up to His level. He shows us we have been accepted all along. There is nothing we could ever do that will turn Him away from us. We are His children, He is our Father who made us and created us in His image. As long as we continue to talk to Him about everything, He will forgive us and accept us. As long as we desire His forgiveness and ask for it, He will forgive us. He loves us so much, there is nothing that we could ever do that He cannot forgive us for. Because if that isn’t true, then His sacrifice at the cross is not powerful enough. That means there is a flaw in His sacrifice. It’s not good enough. God forbid. I mean, we are talking about God laying down His own body at the cross. This is not just another human being dying for us. It is God. The only Perfect One. The cross is the greatest thing God has ever done for mankind. It triumphs over and surpasses all the power of sin and anything the enemy can ever throw against us. The Lord tells me again and again not to worry about how unworthy I am of Him, because the fact is no one is ever worthy of Him. Instead He tells me again and again to just love Him, come to Him, and focus on His love for me. The rest will become easy.
One night I saw myself in a dream walking at night on a narrow road. There were no houses, no street lights anywhere. I was all alone. But on either side of this road were these fearful characters lined up. They were all looking at me and making funny noises as if they were ready to pounce on me and eat me. I became afraid and started running, scared and afraid that someone was going to hurt me. As I ran on this road expecting any minute now one of those characters would be on top of me, a light shone from the sky onto the road in front of me, and in a flash Jesus appeared on the road, tall and bright and strong. He had on a long bright white robe that touched His feet. I didn’t realize how small I was until I ran up to Him. I didn’t mean to run up against Him, but I was running so fast and He just appeared so I ended up bumping into Him. I was so small. I only came up to His knees. I looked like I was a four year old little girl. Then He put His right arm around me and I felt very safe. I saw myself being hugged by Him and then carried into His arms as if I was a little girl. The monster looking creatures on the road couldn’t harm me anymore. God was with me. And I stopped being afraid.
Isn’t it amazing to know that Christ loves us so much, and accepts us so perfectly, that there’s really nothing else we need to do but just talk to Him? If we confess and repent of our sins, and ask for forgiveness, He will forgive. Just by simply believing and having faith in His love for us, we will become heirs to the kingdom of God. Day after day and night after night, if we learn to talk and communicate with the Lord about anything and everything in our hearts, good and bad, we will find His rest. He will help us to be His child. He will fill us with His Holy Spirit so that we will know His voice. He will guide us and lead us to His truth. He will show us step by step through our hearts and our spirit what to do and where to go. Whatever we’re going through, He will work it all out for us. There is no fear in His love. We can truly find His rest and acceptance. We just need to talk to Him.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. {John 3:16}
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. {John 3:17}
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. {Romans 5:8}
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. {1 John 1:9}
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. {Titus 3:5-7}
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. {John 14:18}
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. {Matthew 11:28-30}
Prayer
Lord Jesus I thank You so much that You are such a wonderful and gracious God. Who can fathom Your love Lord? How can I even begin to measure Your love for me? All I have to do for my part is to talk to You and accept You into my life, and You will do the rest for me. You will help me to be holy, to be righteous and to be obedient to Your word. You will help me and not leave me on my own. I am never alone in this walk with You if I just connect with You all the time by talking to You. You will help me to be Your child by the power of Your love for me. Your love will bring about the change that’s needed in my heart to bring all the goodness You desire for me. Help me then Father to rest in Your love today, to trust and believe in You, I pray in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
Repost from March 2018: Rest In His Love
