By Ruthie (officially an unofficial author)
One of the basic tenants of the gospel is that God loves us. So many of us would eagerly say that we believe that. But do we really? Honestly, I struggle with believing that God really loves me and I struggle even more with letting Him love me. Last year as I was trying to sort some of this out I came up with this list (and had some fellow struggler’s help me!) By reading it I think you’ll discover whether or not you too struggle with having a Father who really, really LOVES you!
You know you don’t believe God loves you when…
1. you assume others think the worst about you
2. you beat yourself up over your sin
3. your hesitant to come to Him with your problems and pain
4. you are afraid of Him.
5. you feel like you have to get your act together before you are useful to Him
6. everybody in your life has to be ‘pefect’ in order for you to love them
7. you feel like your good works make Him love you more
8. you feel like your failures make you love him less
9. you assume that tragedy and suffering are punishment from Him
10. you have to say “Yes” to everything-
11. the last thought before you go to bed is “I failed, I didn’t do….”
12. the thought of letting him love you makes you squirm
13. you assume he doesn’t really want what’s best for you
14. you feel like he tolerates you
15. you constantly compare yourself to others
16. you make great demands of family and friends to meet your emotional needs
17. your insecurity paralyzes you and keeps you from taking risks
18. your anxious about the way your kids make you look. You take credit for their accomplishments and blame yourself for their failures.
19. your jealous when God blesses others with something you long for
20. the thought of Him rejoicing over you makes you laugh, cry or scream!
Look at his nail scarred hands and see your name engraved there. He loves you. He loves me. Help me God to believe it!
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:45 am
I know God really loves me, but at least SIX on this list are mine! I have work to do as in preaching the gospel to myself everyday.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Yeah, unfortunately I can relate to alot of those! And I might add “having a hard time viewing Him as my Father.” I will often hear people pray to God and address Him as Father, and I must confess that is such a hard thing for me. So, even seeing the title of this post, “Living with the Love of a Father” caused me to pause and think a bit about my reaction to it.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Hey Ladies! Y’all don’t know me, but I am an old friend of Rinnie’s. SHe told me about your site. I “lurk” often. I love this post! Thank you so much for the encouragment!
August 28th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
oops-#8 should read, “you feel like your failures make Him love you less.” Not the other way around!