🎧 Listen to this lesson:
One day, Michael came into my office to tell me some very confidential information about one of his fellow students. As I was lecturing in one of my sessions at Charis Bible College, it appeared that Patricia was writing herself some notes on her legal pad. Her notes contained these statements: "I am loved, I am pretty," etc. Patricia was also the kind of person that always dressed in a way that brought attention to herself. The real reason that Patricia expressed these words was the fact that she didn't feel loved or pretty, but felt rejected and unloved.
As humans, we all have the same basic needs—the desire to be loved, accepted, and valued, as well as having a sense of self-worth and knowing that we are right with God. A lot of religion today makes us feel unloved, not valued, and not accepted. One of the greatest strongholds that Satan uses against believers is the feeling of guilt and condemnation, while all along making us feel quite spiritual about it.
Here's a question: How many of you when you first came to Jesus were told that not only did He love you, but by accepting Him, He would become your perfect righteousness? In fact, the righteousness He would supply would be all the righteousness you would ever need (1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption"). This is the good news of the Gospel: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:16-17). "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). God did not call us to have faith in faith or faith for stuff, but a confident, reliant, dependent trust in Him.
God can't love you anymore than He already does. He is love (1 John 4:8). But you can receive it more, feel it more, and experience it more. The more you believe it, the more you will find yourself loving God. The Scripture says, "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Think about this, believe it, and receive it!