Can God Love Me
What if you don’t feel like God could love me?
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Feelings are not always reliable. Feelings can be very deceptive. “Feelings can be a man’s worst enemy”, Robert Lewis, Men’s Fraternity. Trust God at His word and don’t rely on feelings. Our feelings can act just like the weather, always there but not always accurate and change is guranteed. “For God proved His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8.
I agree. But can’t our mind deceive us too? It seems like I’ve made decisions in the past where I’m “leaning” one direction one day, and leaning another direction the next. It seems to me that both the mind and feelings can, at times, be unreliable guides.
Yes, my mind has deceived me in the past. I remember as a kid thinking that my Dad did not love me. But in that case my mind was a very “unreliable guide”. He had told me that I could not do something that I really wanted to do; therefore, my thinking went in this direction —
My Desire to Do Something + Dad Not Letting Me Do It = Dad Does Not Love Me
The problem is not with my Dad’s love for me but in my understanding of his love. Later, when my thinking cleared, the equation changed to —
My Desire to Do Something + Dad Not Letting Me Do It = Dad Really Does Love Me
Dang, David - that’s some thinking. I wonder what Ron thinks about your entry?
Thinking is not the same as feeling IMO. Yes our thoughts can affect our feelings but not always. If so, I’ll just think happy thoughts and my feelings will follow suit. I wish it were that easy. I may not feel God loves me but my feelings don’t change the truth of God’s promise that He does indeed love me no matter how I feel about it. Funny how that makes me feel better.
In my life, both my feelings and my mind have deceived me. Satan knows my weakest places, and throws me a lot of lies. If I believe the lies, I do the wrong things, and feel terrible. Only when I find out God’s truths and choose to believe them, will I start doing more of the “right” things, and before I know it, I have more peace! “For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son…”
I think the love of God make sense because it makes know sense to me. Loving myself seems much harder to believe but knowing that I’m loved makes it easier
And why is it that so many of us have a hard time loving ourselves? Not the kind of narcissistic, ego maniacal, unhealthy love, but the kind of love that comes from the value God places on us as his child. Maybe we have been taught that we are sinners to the point we can’t find anything good in ourselves worth loving. Truth is that if anyone is IN christ, he/she is a new creation. Paul refers to us as “saints” (1 Cor. 1:2) yet we don’t often see ourselves that way. We have been saved by God’s grace not our good works. Our behaviour is not what God sees as most important. It is our heart that God sees and loves beyond understanding. We must see ourselves as God does. We are loveable. God loves us, let us love ourselves.
I have heard the phrase, “God don’t make no junk.” I think of Psalm 139 which includes this beautiful section: “13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” That is wonderful stuff!!! Worth reflecting on.