He Loves Us

"We don't struggle to have faith. We are loved, so we have faith."

WE ARE TOO QUICK to label ourselves weak and double-minded. Too quick to say we are suffering in a temptation and trial. Trials come, yes, (trials OF FAITH), and sometimes we don’t see our footsteps clearly. But James 1:2 says, “When ye FALL INTO divers temptations.” Not when you are placed there. God tests no one with evil, and we shouldn’t say He does.

Our image of ourselves is wrong. Instead of seeing ourselves as growing, we waste time measuring how short we come from the goal. We don’t see ourselves as young and maturing, but as too small and without enough faith. We think we are not strong enough, when the truth is, we’re tired and the enemy is persistent.

God knows our faults. He knows our every motive and intent. He knows the words we’re going to speak before we speak them. Yeah, sometimes, we’re dilly-dallying, and other times, we’ve sidestepped, but in God’s eyes those are tiny errors which He’s eager to forgive. He loves us. He’s eager to answer our faith, right at the level we’ve spoken it. Where we aren’t tall or strong or mature or knowledgeable, where we haven’t had the revelation of the truth yet, He will make up the gap with His mercy.

We don’t lean on His mercy enough. We lean on the problem, and need I remind you, that house is built on sinking sand?

Faith is not a quantity which we work to acquire. We are given all of it, the full measure upon salvation. Jesus is that measure. We, each of us, have all of Him living inside us. He’s given us every benefit He died and rose again to give us. All of forgiveness. All of healing. All of peace of mind. All of financial freedom. All of wisdom. Nothing was left out of His work, and nothing has been denied us. We do not have to work to obtain any of it. But simply know how much He loves us and that He will answer our prayers.

Faith is not a formula, steps 1 through 3, but confidence in God which increases in strength as we exercise it. Like a weightlifter who trains to raise huge weights, or a marathon runner who exercises to run long distances, the more we use faith, the less the problem weighs.

We have faith because God loved us. He loved us first, and He loved us to the utmost. We long to be with Him, long to hear Him speak. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. We are not hungry for a book but for a person. We don’t long for a sermon. We long for a Savior, for the voice of the bridegroom, eager to see His face, eager to know Him intimately, and in knowing Him, in being cherished by Him, we never hesitate to ask for anything.

We don’t struggle to have faith. We are loved, so we have faith. And as we use it, following after Him through thick and thin, our image of ourselves changes from weakness to strength, from near the bottom to on the way to the top. From lonely and forgotten to the blush on our cheeks, our voices rippling with laughter, as He who holds our hands bows low to kiss our fingers, all of heaven in His grasp.

“All that he does in us is designed to make us a mature church for his pleasure, until we become a source of praise to him—glorious and radiant, beautiful and holy, without fault or flaw.” (Ephesians 5:27)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com