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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.

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Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2017
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