Skip to main content

The Presence of Love

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him [1 JOHN 4:15-16]
The love of God publicly proven in the coming of Jesus was not merely a love displayed to us, it is a love intimately experienced by us! One of the most important truths repeatedly stated by John is that God now lives in anyone who has hearted trust in Jesus as the Son of God.

Confessing Jesus as Son of God is not simply accepting Jesus is God, it is having trust in Jesus that shows evidence of a changed life of love . John is saying when we turn to Jesus, God comes and lives inside of us. Because God is love, we a life shared with God in love.

God living in us generates an inner confidence that God really does love us and this is what enables us to love other people as well! Because Jesus lives in us and us in Him we now have inner confidence that we belong to God and that God has loving given himself to us.

Being a follower of Jesus is different from any other religion. Our faith in Jesus is a living, personal, dynamic and intimate relationship with God. God now lives you and you in Him. He talks to you through His Word and ministers to your heart through God the Spirit. You speak directly to Him in prayer and he hears you! This is personal intimate love to us.

American writer Elbert Hubbard famously said, “a friend is the person who knows all about you and yet still likes you”. If that is true God is best friend because He is the only friend who forgives us upfront and gives you all of himself to us. Sadly, we often forget that we have a fantastic deep loving personal relationship with God in our lives!

When pain and suffering strikes, we start doubting to ourselves - if God is present, why is he letting me go through me? Why all the silence? When we meet other Christians telling us how much God has done for them, we can feel jealous and start longing for some miraculous experience to validate our relationship with God - and when none comes we can lose our confidence in God’s love and become miserable.

When we face a particular temptation, may be to watch something we should not watch or pollute our bodies, we easily give in because we forget that God lives in us and He is personally loving us! If we remembered this truth we would resist many temptations!

John recognises that as long as we are in this world we will experience many doubts and failures ! But his message is simple: Be confident that God loves you because He has proven His love for you publicly in Jesus and He is personally present loving you from the inside! So, when you start doubting his love: turn to this passage of the Bible and reassure yourself of His love.

Love Series :


Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2017
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

The Humility of Newton

Thou hast honoured me. Thou hast given me a tongue and a pen, many friends; (Thou] hast made me extensively known among thy people and I have reason to hope, useful to many by my preaching and writings... It is of thine own that I can serve thee. And if others speak well of me, I have no cause to speak or think well of myself. They see only my outward walk; to thee I appear as I am. In thy sight I am a poor, unworthy, unfaithful inconsistent creature. And I may well wonder that Thou hast not long ago taken thy word utterly out of my mouth and forbidden me to make mention of thy Name any more! JOHN NEWTON ( Source : Wise Counsel) Newton wrote these words addressed to God in his diary in 1789. In that year, Newton’s fame had grown significantly because of his publishing ‘ Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade’ and his appearance before Her Majesty’s Privy Council appointed to investigate the slave trade.  I find Newton’s words quite challenging. The words reveal a heart truly shaped by t
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Preaching to the Conscience

Preaching to the conscience means something concrete. It means explaining the listeners’  obligations to God, their failure to meet those obligations, their impotence to make up for that failure, the eternal consequences of that failure, and God’s astounding grace offered to all who will humble themselves, repent, and believe the good news.  In other words, preaching to the conscience is provocative. It seeks to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed…. The great obstacle to this kind of preaching is when  the conscience is awakened, people react. The humble repent, rejoice, and enter God’s kingdom. The proud become angry: “Who are you to tell me I am a sinner?” or “This is not the God I learned about in Sunday school.”  Men dominated by the fear of man will not preach to the conscience. If you’re seeking a reward from men as you preach the gospel, you may get it, but that’s all—you won’t get anything from God.  The world needs pastors who fear God, love sinners, and under
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →