Know and Believe God's love for you

Believers, no matter how much a husband loves his wife, if she does not know and believe that her husband loves her deeply, she will forever feel insecure and even unloved, even though the love her husband has for her is real. Likewise parents with their children. 

A child that neither knows nor believes that she is passionately loved by her father, so much that he would be willing to lay down his life for her without thinking twice about it, would still wonder if she should make certain requests of him. She can't be certain that he would be willing to make sacrifices that she deems to be "a lot" for her. 

Believer, the same thing goes with our relationship with God our heavenly Father in Christ. 1 John 4:16 says of Him:

"And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

See the Amplified Classic Version of the same 1 John 4:16-

"And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him."

Just to digress a bit, some people teach this verse as:

"Love others first and be good then you can abide in God." 

Not so. This is as silly as expecting a child to love his parents first before he can become their child. Leading a life of love and every other good work that we get to do in Christ are FRUITS of us being joined to God and God being joined to us. The same John wrote Christ's words in John 15:5-

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

Only when we abide (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) Christ alone - putting no confidence in our own ability to lead a life of love or do anything good at all but trusting wholly in Christ for our every need- only then do we bear the fruit of leading a life of love. The same process applies every other fruit of the Spirit that we get to bear in Christ. See them in Galatians 5:22-23–

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

All are a part of the "much fruit" that Christ says all who utterly depend on Him and put no confidence in the arm of flesh (will-power/human effort at obedience) will bear and in His time. Hebrews 10:14 says of Him:

"And by His one perfect sacrifice He made us perfectly holy and complete for all time!"

Believer, know and believe that the instant we became born-again, we were made complete and perfectly holy in Christ, just as a child born to a father who has a long, full beard is born complete with all he needs to grow a beard like his father. But false preachers try to tell the five-year-old child that he is no longer a child of his father because he has no beard and cannot drive like his father. With time, as the child grows and matures under the care of His loving father, his beard will grow naturally and effortlessly, the same way a branch produces much fruit. The Vine does it all. Believer, your "beard" aka works of faith will come from Christ the Vine Himself. He keeps us steadfast and utterly dependent on Him.

By God's grace, let's not be found among those who claim to be joined to Christ the Vine yet trust in their human effort to bear fruit to God or those who think that God's word cannot come to pass in their lives apart from their forceful, arm of flesh/human effort-driven works aka law-keeping. Without Christ the Vine, the branch can do nothing. This is why a true believer can never boast about things like "I sowed my car and God gave me a jet." For all who believe, for all the "much fruit" aka good works that we get to bear in Christ, Christ gets all the glory. In Him, our testimony is like Paul's 1 Corinthians 15:10-

"But because of God’s grace I am what I am. And His grace was not wasted on me. No, I have worked harder than all the other apostles. But I didn’t do the work. God’s grace was with me."

How is God's grace wasted on a person? See this in Galatians 2:20-

"I do not get rid of the grace of God. What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!"

Trying to get right with God/be godly by keeping the Law (human effort at living a godly/righteous life) is throwing God's Grace into the trash. It is also the way to get cut off from Christ-

"For if you are trying to make yourself right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace." Galatians 5:4.

Leading a life of love that is overflowing with the fruits of the Spirit comes about as a result of KNOWING and BELIEVING God's love for us. See the verse in its context with emphasis on verses 10 and 19-

10 "In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins....16"And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us."

Only when we know and believe the love that God has for us can we lead a life free of anxious fears that cause depression and love Him and others too. And just how much does this wonderful God love us? See the full expression of God's love for us revealed in what took place at the cross: 

God's righteousness demands that every sin be punished to the uttermost. The wages of sin is death. All have sinned. No matter how well we obeyed the law, were all destined for death (preceded by its symptoms of lack, depression, sickness — earthly ills, physical death and finally death in hell.) - "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The Law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.

At the cross, God's Love and Justice met: He punished our entire lifetime of sins in the body of His Son, Jesus Christ so that we might not perish but have everlasting life. Instead of living life in a downward spiral of sins that lead to death, including earthly ills and death in hell, we get to have life and life more abundant, all through His undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour- Grace.

Does this mean that we can just go about and be sinning anyhow? Never! Having this mentality of “What if I willingly sin” is a testament to not yet understanding or experiencing God's love and the impact of His saving grace in our lives. I might as well ask: 

“Can I willingly do things that will sadden my own loving mother who loves me unconditionally and gave her best years to me and continue to do things to make her sad knowing that she is forced to love and forgive me…”

My mom loves me. She made a lot of sacrifices to ensure that I have a good life. I remember looking through our old photos one day — photos of birthday parties of uncles, aunts and cousins inclusive. She was wearing the same outfit in most of them. It dawned on me that she was wearing the same outfit because she could not afford to splurge on new ones. She put her five kids first. I’ve said and done some nasty things to her that I utterly regret. Sometimes, I catch myself cringing physically when I remember some of the things my teenage and young adult self said to her in anger. In all of that, she still loved and took care of me as best as she could. I want to make her happy. I delight in making her happy. Why on earth would I willingly do things to upset her?

How much more our Father in heaven who so loved us that He gave His own Son that we might have life and have it more abundantly? Being in Christ entails having a loving Father — child dependency/relationship with God. 

By grace, know and believe God's love for you. He is not a hard  Taskmaster who is just waiting in the wings to catch us in sin so that He can punish us and unleash Satan on us. NEVER. Believer, to us, He is "Abba, Father" who gave His own Son to save us from those very sins that false preachers say He will punish you for: see Matthew 1:21-

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Also Titus 2:14- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Beloved of God, John 3:16 is all about His love for you. No wonder it is the most popular Bible verse:

"For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."

Isaiah prophesied of Christ's suffering for us in Isaiah 53. See the result of His decease which He accomplished for us in Isaiah 53:11-

"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins."

You mean so much to Him that He gave His own Son to bear the punishment for your entire lifetime of sins and make you godly. By God's grace, stop trying to pay for your sins or attain godliness by your own will-power. All the law-keeping in the world cannot help anybody. God sees it as Pride for us to think that there is anything at all that we can do by human striving in order to be godly aka "be like God." Trying to be godly by will-power means rejecting His Son Jesus Christ whom God gave to suffer and die to make us godly. He counsels in Isaiah 30-

"God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,

    has this solemn counsel:

“Your salvation requires you to turn back to Me

    and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.

Your strength will come from settling down

    in complete dependence on Me—

The very thing

    you’ve been unwilling to do...."

By God's grace, Know and Believe this love that God has for you. Freely receive His abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ just the way you are with all of your baggage of sins that you struggle with. He will save you from them all and cause you to live in triumph  over sin and death. His word says so- Romans 5:16-17-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

The arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) will fail. Never trust yourself. Trust in Christ. 

Right believing always produces right living.