Chosen: Believing God Loves Us

+Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka

You are chosen.

Have you ever felt like the left-overs? Like people hang out with you because, well, there’s no one better to hang with so, you’ll do in a pinch?

As I shared last week, I dealt with rejection . . . heck, I am still learning to live beyond the lies rejection told me for the last number of decades.

Those lies we hear and accept as children sometimes take a lifetime to erase.

Here’s the thing: God has never rejected us. He chose us. He created us from before the first sunrise, for a special purpose. We are not less-than to Him. We are not the ones He “settled” for.

He delights in being with us. He rejoices over us with His singing, and He is quiet in His love for us.

The thing is God loves us with this crazy sort of passionate, out-loud love. From sunsets over the mountains, to the streams burbling over rocks . . . from the quiet breezes that comb through our hair on a spring day to the majestic mountains, deserts, oceans He’s created . . .

He’s lavishing His love on us.

When we believe the lies that burrow into the walls of our mind, we’re blinded to the love He’s showering us with. When we attune our ears to the whisper of the enemy’s lies, we are deaf and blind to the magnitude of God’s love.

As I learn how to be authentic with God, there’s a lot of undoing that must occur so I can truly receive all of His love.

It’s a process to be freed by God’s truth . . . To stop listening to the lies the enemy has declared as “true.”

I know God loves me. Most of us reading this will say, “Sure, God loves me.” But how much of His love do we believe? How much do we embrace?

How much of His love do we think we deserve?

When we’ve yelled at our kids, lied to someone, cut someone off on the freeway, gossiped about another . . . .

When we’ve cheated someone in some way, or stolen something from the office, or stolen someone’s reputation through words . . .

When we’ve viewed things our spirits tell us are wrong . . .

When we’ve been told for years that we don’t deserve to be loved, or accepted, or valued . . . and we believe those words?

Can we embrace God’s love then?

As I come to terms with my own sins, my feelings of being “less-than,” I’ve discovered a strange thing.

I have only accepted as much of God’s love as I felt I deserved or was worthy of.

I’ve withheld parts of myself, even from God because I felt unacceptable to Him.

Lie? Yes.

But, I acted on this lie. My feelings—my thoughts—felt unclean, unworthy of God. Unacceptable to Him.

Our enemy is so sneaky. He makes these kinds of thoughts sound like they are said in our own voice, and we believe them.

The enemy tries to convince us we’re the leftovers in God’s kingdom, that we are not the first choice in the lives of those around us. He attempts to persuade us we aren’t valued by those who say they like us, they love us.

We must remember: Satan is a liar. The father of lies.

For too long, I’ve listened to those lies, taken them to heart. But no more.

It’s time to start listening to the Father of truth, and to believe Him when He says He loves me, and each of us. That He has chosen us to be His children. We’re not God’s “I’ll settle for . . . ” choice. He delights in us.

I am seeing I’ve only gone partway into the depths of God’s love. I’ve only accepted a small amount of the unfathomable amounts of love God has for me.

Is it possible that as much as we will enter into His love, that’s the amount of His love we’ll be able to experience?

In believing that He truly does love us passionately,

Completely

With abandon

And that nothing will make Him stop loving us . . .

We can know more of His love.

We can walk in greater freedom, confidence, peace when we walk in the TRUTH that God Loves You. Me.

What about you? What is hard for you to believe about the truth that God loves you? What helps you combat Satan’s lies?

Today I’m liking up with Holly Barrett and A Purposeful Faith (#RaRaLinkup).