{"id":3060,"date":"2021-10-28T22:16:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T22:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=3060"},"modified":"2021-10-28T22:16:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T22:16:35","slug":"know-you-are-loved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2021\/10\/28\/know-you-are-loved\/","title":{"rendered":"Know You are Loved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">See what great love the Father has given us<br \/>\nthat we should be called God&#8217;s children&#8211; and we are!<br \/>\n(1 John 3:1 CSB)<\/p>\n<p>This is the Good News \u2013 that the Father loves us. That we are precious to Him. That we are in His intimate family. That His love is essential to His character, and thus will never change.<\/p>\n<p>If you are in Christ Jesus, if you believe in Him as your Savior, your Lord, your Treasure, if you love Christ Jesus \u2013 that is the result of the Father\u2019s love for you. \u201cWe love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19). \u201cGod shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d (Romans 5:8).<\/p>\n<p>We must remember His love every day \u2013 His love that never changes, His love that never ends, His love that is not dependent on anything we say, on anything we do, on anything we accomplish.<\/p>\n<p>What happens when we forget His love?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When criticized, we either are defensive (feeling that if the criticism is correct, we won\u2019t be loved), or are controlled by the critic (trying to win back his love by changing our behavior).<\/li>\n<li>When feeling depressed and hopeless, we either plaster a smile on our faces, stifling the feelings, or turn away from God, thinking He has let us down.<\/li>\n<li>When someone wrongs us, we either aim to convince the perpetrator of his sin, or pretend we\u2019re ok and live a normal life outwardly while bleeding internally.<\/li>\n<li>When gossiped about, we either wonder if we deserve it, or frantically search social media to track the terrible things being said about us and then do whatever we can to get even.<\/li>\n<li>When tired, we either gut it out and get more and more tired, or try to create our own rest, getting angry and annoyed with those who interfere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All these negative responses come from letting our feelings drive us \u2013 feelings of hurt, of inferiority, of inadequacy, of exhaustion, of depression. Jesus never says, \u201cYour feelings will set you free.\u201d Instead, He says, &#8220;If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.&#8221; (John 8:31-32). The truth that sets us free includes the truth of the Father\u2019s love for us. When we know we are loved \u2013 when we know that the Father has declared us righteous, has justified us completely by His grace through faith in Jesus, and thus He accepts us and sees us as His own precious possession \u2013 then we are free from the chains that compel us to those negative responses. Confident in His love, we can respond differently:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We don\u2019t have to let the face of the criticizer or oppressor dominate our thoughts. We can seek the Father\u2019s loving face \u2013 and respond out of that security.<\/li>\n<li>We don\u2019t have to pretend everything is fine when hurting. We can cry out, like a little child with her daddy. We can weep and mourn \u2013 while holding on to the One Who loves us.<\/li>\n<li>We can listen to critics and pray to see what is behind the criticism \u2013 yes, what ways we may have failed and need to change by God\u2019s grace, but also what hurts and pains may be motivating the criticism, and thus be able to acknowledge that pain and stand beside the hurting criticizer.<\/li>\n<li>We can endure the trials and tribulations of this world, not because tomorrow will be better \u2013 it may be worse! \u2013 but because nothing can separate us from the Father\u2019s love; He will bring us safely through even the valley of the shadow of death to His heavenly Kingdom, and Jesus will return to reign forever.<\/li>\n<li>We can see the troubled Christians around us not as problems to solve, but as others loved by God whom we can help endure in hope until they see Jesus face to face.<\/li>\n<li>We can follow our Savior in displaying meekness \u2013 which is strength leveraged for the good of another.<\/li>\n<li>We can know that when we are wrong or when we sin, we are still loved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So do you feel hurt? Do you feel despairing? Don\u2019t suppress the feelings \u2013 rather, thank God for them. But don\u2019t let those feelings control you. Rather, use the feelings to prompt you to remember the truth of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how Jeremiah responded to feelings of despair (read Lamentations 3:17-18 to hear the depth of his feelings). In the midst of horrors far beyond what we have experienced, the prophet says:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. &#8220;The LORD is my portion,&#8221; says my soul, &#8220;therefore I will hope in him.&#8221; (Lamentations 3:21-24).<\/p>\n<p>Call to mind the Father\u2019s love. Have that hope. Know that love every morning \u2013 every beautiful, peaceful sunrise and every horrible, pain-wracked break of day.<\/p>\n<p>Do you wonder if the Father loves you like this? He does, if you are in Christ. Do you then wonder if you are in Christ? If so, come to Him! The only requirement is that you are weary and heavily burdened! (Matthew 11:28). So repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15).<\/p>\n<p>Friends, in Jesus you are loved. Today. Tomorrow. For all eternity. God is faithful to His character \u2013 and thus He is faithful to love us now and forever. Remember that love. Call it to mind. And then bask in that love.<\/p>\n<p>[Beth and I were privileged to take part in the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/tctnetwork.org\/\">Treasuring Christ Together<\/a> retreat October 19 to 21. I try here to synthesize ideas presented and discussed at the retreat. Several different talks prompted this devotion \u2013 including those by Sean Cordell, Lance Parrot, Nathan Knight, Kenny Stokes, and Tim Cain. Anything you think particularly well said probably did not originate with me! Unless noted, Scriptures are ESV.]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God&#8217;s children&#8211; and we are! (1 John 3:1 CSB) This is the Good News \u2013 that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,15],"tags":[2432,2428,2430,458,2424,635,657,661,702,868,2425,950,2426,2427,1120,2431,1519,2433,2429,1606],"class_list":["post-3060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attributes-of-god","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-1-john-31","tag-criticism","tag-depression","tag-endurance","tag-feelings","tag-gods-love","tag-gospel","tag-gossip","tag-he-first-loved-us","tag-justification","tag-lamentations-3","tag-love-of-god","tag-meek","tag-meekness","tag-pain","tag-romans-58","tag-suffering","tag-tctretreat21","tag-the-truth-will-set-you-free","tag-treasuring-christ-together"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3060"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3062,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions\/3062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}