Can I Believe God Loves Me? Pt. 2 — Morning Devotions - Hope 103.2

Can I Believe God Loves Me? Pt. 2 — Morning Devotions

Life can be extremely difficult, whether that is because our own mistakes or through events that have happened to us. We need a greater love to live for.

By Chris WittsFriday 2 Aug 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute


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Transcript:

I’m asking the question again today, can I really believe that God loves me? The truth is, God loves us, warts and all, despite what we might have done in the past. Having negative feelings about ourselves is quite common. I think there are a lot of people who are disappointed in themselves Now. It’s amazing to me as I read the Bible, that Paul the Apostle Paul, who wrote virtually two thirds of the New Testament, had some very serious negative feelings about himself.

Can I Believe God Loves Me? Pt. 1 — Morning Devotions

Listen to what he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:9. I am, he said, the least important of all the apostles. In fact, I cause so much trouble for God’s church that I don’t even deserve to be called an apostle.

So here, if that great man Paul, felt like that, it’s no wonder that many of us have wondered how God could love someone like me, someone as bad as me. But He loves us as if we were the only one to love. We are significant, and I heard of someone who wears a T shirt that says God loves us all. But I am His favourite and that’s great. We we’re all His favourites.

How can God love someone like me?

It’s astounding to think like that. Don’t say ‘how can God love someone like me’ when actually the Bible says something quite different. You can read in 1 John 4:16 – God Is Love and Hebrews 8:12 – I remember your sins no more. And sometimes our own sense of insignificance gets in the way. Something like 6 billion people inhabit this planet.

So how could God love each of us? It doesn’t seem possible. I mean, hasn’t God got bigger things on his mind? There’s famine, drought, epidemics, AIDS, war, poverty, human trafficking, genocide.

So I think many of us have this sense of being insignificant, that nothing they do really matters. And that’s quite sad. But it turns out that many people in the Bible actually battled these similar feelings. When God asked Moses to deliver his people out of slavery, Moses said, “who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

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I mean, after all, Moses was 80, I think he’d given up on life. He wanted something quiet. He was a nobody. He felt that even though he’d been raised in a palace, he’d made a dreadful mistake. He’d actually murdered someone. He fled for his life, and he wandered the wilderness looking after sheep.

But God, of course, saw tremendous potential in this old man. Life wasn’t over for him. And King David here is a man described in Scripture as a man after God’s own heart. He felt he was all washed up with nothing more to give. And in 1 Chronicles 29:14, he says, But who am I and who are m people? That we could give anything to you? And although women sang of all the great things he’d done, people honoured him and thousands of men voluntarily followed him to battle. David never forgot that he was just a shepherd boy. Let me tell you about somebody else, just briefly – Gideon.

Now, here’s a man, there was a time when he had an encounter with God and he was asked to take on the Midianites, the enemy. So he was a man called on to be the judge of Israel in very difficult days. And yet, he said to the angel who appeared to him, I am the poorest of the poor and the least thought of member in my family. What use would I be? Again there it is. But isn’t it amazing how God uses unlikely people? Because the Bible says that God does not look at the outward appearance? It was like Gideon had actually said, Look, I’m the black sheep of my family. I never excelled at anything. I flunked out of school and honestly, you’ve got the wrong man. I haven’t got a clue as to what should be done to get us out of this predicament.

So that’s basically what Gideon told God that day. Howard Hendrix says that he starts every morning with the prayer – Lord, here I am. I want to be your suit of clothes. Today. I want you to take me and to use me, Lord, just walk around me in today.

I think that’s not a bad prayer. We need to remember that our strength does not come from ourselves, but of course it comes from God. So let’s not forget that God’s love is there. It’s unconditional. Can I believe that God really loves me? Yes, you can. And you can absolutely count on it.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, sometimes we get confused about these issues. Life gives us challenges. We lose our way but open our ears to hear your voice. Help us to respond to whatever you say today. Amen.