Knowing and Believing God's love

When we look at the world around us, we see people; no doubtingly humankind has such variety that we can never get along with everybody. But, personally, when I look at the world, I see one common theme, or presence, or whatever it is you want to put it as- NEGATIVITY.

You see it through the actions of human beings- jealousy, anger, doubt, rejection, violence, murder, and pain.

When God created this world, His first reaction to HIS creation was, "It was good." And WHY was it very good? Because God had created it to be a reflection of HIS glory. And HUMANS are the most precious creation of God. Genesis 1:27 says,

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Just ponder that for a second. All the other creatures and things of this world that God created were "good". But when He created Adam, He said it was VERY good.
Genesis 1:31, after He made everything, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
God actually breathed out of Himself into Adam; "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." - Gen 2:7

Can you imagine? God breathed out of HIMSELF to create US. Mere mortal human beings. He didn't do it for the animals, the birds, the sky, the waters, the land.... He only did it for US.
Now, I know you guys probably have heard all this before, but this just really shows HOW MUCH God loves us. From the very beginning, HUMAN BEINGS were created NOT by mere words, but we were created by GOD himself, who took out of himself, breath, and breathed from HIS nostrils, the Bible says, and out of it, came the man who became living. Everything else came from, "God said..." Now, don't get me wrong- the fact that God created something out of nothing, and by mere words is INCREDIBLE. But, the fact that humans were created in a different WAY suggests how SPECIALLY DESIGNED we are, in comparison to the rest of God's creation.

Why am I telling you this? Because yesterday, my pastor was telling the congregation about how we need to KNOW and BELIEVE in God's LOVE before we can truly prosper in life. In order to truly SUCCEED in Christianity, in daily living, is to a) KNOW that God loves you, and b) BELIEVE it.

So many times, people say, "God loves you." But, be honest here: how many of you actually TRULY BELIEVE it in your inmost being? How many of you TRULY, from the bottom of your HEART, KNOW and BELIEVE that God loves you?

I can tell you that I'll bet that the majority of you would answer no. Why do I make this assumption? Because if people DID believe in God's love, more people would trust in God. Because if people TRULY DID believe that God loves them, more people would start ABSORBING ALL that God has to offer. Now, I DO acknowledge the fact that it takes a LIFETIME to develop into the person that God wants him or her to be; thus, learning how to UNDERSTAND God's love may take time. AFTER ALL, even CREATION was done in a process. And this is how God works! God takes time; His normal way of working is through a process. For example: Israel was freed from slavery overnight, but it requireed them 40 years to reach the promised land. Joseph got his calling from God through dreams that happened very fast- yet it took him at least 12 years before he was appointed to be in charge of Egypt.

However, if you can't ACCEPT God's love, how can you expect to get things from God? How do you expect to succeed in life? No doubt there would be struggles, but knowing and believing in God's love would totally make a difference. You may say, how would that make a difference.
Well, if you truly BELIEVED that God loved you, you wouldn't bother worrying about getting food to eat, when you're going to get a boyfriend/girlfriend, or whats going to happen tomorrow, BECAUSE you KNOW and BELIEVE that God CARES for YOU, and that HE knows best. Once you believe that God loves you, you'll trust HIM to take care of you, because you know that He loves you.

It's similar to a parent-child relationship! If the child KNOWS and BELIEVES that the parent LOVES the kid, then the kid will trust in the parent, because the child KNOWS that he or she is loved by them.

In the end, the only way you'll be able to be SET FREE from the NEGATIvITY of this world, is if you learn to COMPREHEND, to GRASP, and most importantly, to believe that God loves you, cares about you, and KNOWS WHATS BEST. Once you have that, there's no telling what else can stop you. You'd be able to resist lies from the Devil! Of course, you would also have to FOCUS ON GOD's love, rather than focusing on YOUR love for God, because if we were to focus on OUR love for God, well, we would fall short every time! 1 John 4:10 says, "This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

This verse defines love right there; under the New Covenant (with Jesus' death and resurrection), REAL love comes from focusing on GOD's love for us- it is NOT that WE loved God, but that HE loved US.

But yeah, the KEY thing IS: you must grasp and believe that GOD loves YOU, and it is only BECAUSE of that, that WE, in turn, love HIM back. (:

For me, personally, even though I've been raised to believe that God loves me, and have actually EXPERIENCED the love of God, I still have trouble grasping that fact, especially considering the fact that I have (but WON'T have, with God's help) low self-esteem. The devil always seems to be at my shoulder, whispering lies of deceit into my ears. Whispering things like, "God doesn't love you. Why should he? You're worthless.... nobody cares about you........ see that? he or she is so much more popular than you.... you're so different. Nobody wants to hang around you."

All these lies from the devil just keep on going, and for the most part, I fell for each one of those lies, at least one point in my life. Sometimes, I STILL fall for some of them.
But God is always faithful. He's always there to REMIND me of His unfailing love.
He's always there to remind me that it's only a lie. That I don't NEED to fall into that trap. He's always there, leading me to other people who will remind me of my worth. of my UNIQUENESS.
Lately, I've been trying to find verses that will get me to truly believe in God and His love. So, I went searching through this book called "the Bible Promise Book for Teens."

It's great because it has a whole list of topics that teens might struggle with, and each topic has numerous verses that apply to that particular topic.

I'd like to share them with you, so that not only will YOU GUYS benefit from this, but me too, because I need it.

A good quotation comes from James Robison, a famous preacher who helps out around the world in orphanages, feeding the hungry in third-world countries.

He said, "In God, we have a Father who thinks of us unceasingly, we are never absent from his thoughts.... and this is a Father who not only desires to see good in my life, He has the will and the power and wisdom to make it happen!"

Anywho, onto the verses:

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise .... For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand." -Psalms 139:1;13-17

1 John 4:10 is obviously another good one, but i already wrote it out, so i'm not going to bother writing it again.

"But God showed His love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."
Romans 5:8


"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God." 1 John 3:1