For all of humanity, God says,“I love you. I have loved you enough to provide a way for you to have a relationship with me. I have loved you enough to form a unique plan for your life. I have loved you enough to provide for your needs.”
God goes on to say, “However, my love does not fix everything. I have loved my children but have watched them go through some diffculties that involved their wrong choices. I could not do anything to prevent their trouble.”
You see, God can do anything, true, but God chooses not to violate our will. So, God loves us, yet sets us free to choose. All through life He gives us the freedom of choice.
Not all my choices have been good. I have suffered the consequences of my foolishness. In spite of me having to endure the consequences,
God steps up and says, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” And in that confidence and love, I have survived the results of my own stupidity.
I am not what you think I am. I am what He says I am. Therefore I can do not what I think I can but what He says I can
God says to us, “In all your ways acknowledge me and I will direct your paths”. So I should look to him for guidance before I decide anything, and He will get involved in that choice. My obedience to His word and His will definitely makes the outcome better—but we often do not.
Where is God when pain and suffering and sorrow come to our lives? Once again, He promises His undying love and His ability to make a way where there is no way. God promises to make streams flow in our desert places. God promises to restore what has been stolen and to answer us when we call.
In this evil world full of sin, there is also demonic presence. Evil spirits exist—and they don’t like you—especially if you love God so they come after you. Never, never, never are we to become demon conscious.
Never are we to look for demons. Yet we cannot deny the fact they exist. So he tells us when the devils show up in personal attack, temptation, evil thoughts, unexplained emotions he says, “Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you then resist the devil and he will flee from you. I will give you power of all the power over all the power of the enemy and nothing can by any means harm you.”
Everything God does he does as an expression of his love for us. Nothing more and nothing less. God Himself speaks over us. He calls us “children of God,” “His people,” “saints of God,” and so much more. These words are irrespective of circumstances.
But never forget that the effectiveness of God’s work in our lives has much to do with our recognition of His authority over us and His power within us. The need for us to follow Him is so important. It’s like walking in the light, living a life in relationship with a living God who is light and life. There is no darkness in Him. His words over us are powerful, true, and life-giving.
As Henry Shorr says, “God has never loved you more than he does now and he will never love you any less than he does now.”
Let me finish with a confession: “I am not what you think I am. I am what He says I am. Therefore I can do not what I think I can but what He says I can.”
