The Revelation! He Doesn’t Hate Me!

Posted Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Romans 5:5, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

“God so loved the world.” Knowing what you do about the world, dwell on the thought that God loves the world, and you will be overwhelmed. We have all seen more than our share of wickedness, and yet He loved the world! Now, if God loves the wicked world, would it make sense that He would not love His own children? Not that we are comparing our righteousness to that of the world’s and coming out looking more deserving. We are just examining His love. The following are soul killers for a Christian: to believe that God hates him, is disappointed with him, has decreed that he has not measured up, or has had it with him. When we believe that God hates us, we shut down, withdraw, move into regret, wither, move into guilt, and become resigned. Messages that tell us God is upset with us bombard us through sermons that compare, accuse, spread guilt, condemn, and judge. We hear, “Will God know you? Will God say, ‘Depart from Me, for I never knew you’? Will you put your hand to the plow and look back?” Legalists work so hard to get a person in the faith, and then go into overdrive to kick him out. Simply put, we just will not approach a God we think is mad at us, but by avoiding Him, we avoid LIFE and the solutions to all our failures. See how important it is that we know that God does really love us and is not angry with us? That God entered into our humanity, lived in a fleshly body, and is not surprised by what we have done?

Let me warn you to believe that God loves you, or you will have to prove it through nightmarish experiences. He will withdraw His grace until you cry, “Uncle!” and admit that you make no contribution or have any hope of being loved. In that spiritual fetal position you will then hear Him say, “I never stopped loving you.”

I must know that He loves me. I must be able to get up after a failure and not believe that I need to work my way back to acceptance. I must have a God whose love is that big. I remember a blown day. (Actually, there are too many to remember.) I blew the meeting, I blew the message, I blew my temper, I blew my judgments; it was a completely blown day. I went to sleep with those two haunting fears I have when I am feeling at my worst: first, that I would wake up, and second, that I would make it through another day. However, in the morning I felt beautiful. I did not have a care. I did not have a hint of condemnation. I kept thinking how strange it was. Then I did the unthinkable and rationalized to myself that why, when I was having such a beautiful day, was I going to mention to God all of my failures from the previous day? Well, I did, and He said, “I do not want to talk about that. I love you. Let’s move on.” Yes!!! From the world we get the idea that if we fail, we are abandoned, cut off. This carnal trait of reacting is not to be transferred to the Father in heaven.