When your problems in life and the enemy’s lies convince you that God doesn’t love you, you will attempt to earn back God’s acceptance and love. But God has never left you or stopped loving you (Hebrews 13:5). There is nothing you must do to earn God’s love. He has loved you from the beginning of time and will until the end of time. He accepted you as His own child when you believed in Jesus (John 1:12). He will never leave you as an orphan (John 14:18). The righteousness of God that Christ has given you is yours, and you can only live a holy life in His power. Righteousness is His gift. You didn't earn it then, and you can't earn it now. You have to believe it is yours and receive it as your own.
Quit struggling to win God’s love. It is tiring trying to win something that is already yours. Believing who you are in Christ is the only way to be convinced of His love for you. It is the only way to receive His love.
Paul knew how to rejoice when he ran into problems because He knew who He was in Christ.
“We can rejoice, too,” Paul wrote, “when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 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 5:3-5, NLT).
When we believe that God is the solution to our problems, we praise Him. Those problems develop strength of character instead of defeating us. We have hope and great confidence in God. We believe that He first loved us (I John 4:19). And that His work of salvation in us doesn’t lack a thing. It is complete, thorough, and finished. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). The hope God has given us never leads to disappointment. When we believe God’s promises are ours, we choose to live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthian 5:7). And when we believe His promises, no enemy—no lie—nothing has any power to rob us of what is ours in Christ.
When you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)—when you believe that the work of Jesus is finished (John 17:4), you stand strong in God’s power through each problem in life knowing He has already taken care of it. You see God’s finished outcome. And you walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
There is no fear in His perfect love for you because fear involves torment. God does not torment you. He is love. His perfect love in you casts out your fear because His love performs a finished work in you. You are newly reborn in His perfect love. As Jesus is in this world, so are you. (1 John 4:17-18). You have no power to accomplish this work. You know Jesus alone has done this work. There is nothing you do. It is His work of grace in you.
We don’t receive from God through anything we do. We don’t perform to receive. We receive from God through faith in what Jesus has done for us. It is His work—not ours. Jesus has given us right standing with God. He has earned God’s righteousness for us through His finished work. Jesus has earned the blessings of God to supply all our needs (Philippians 4:19).
It is only through faith in Jesus that a person has God’s righteousness (Romans 1:17). When we exercise our faith to believe in God's promise of righteousness, He is pleased (Hebrews 11:6). And we experience His finished work of grace in us according to what we believe (Mathew 9:29).
© 2023 Lynn Lacher
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