The Satanic Toos

The past few mornings we have been thinking about God’s love for us. The obstacles to knowing the love of the Father are very real. Greatest among these obstacles are those erected by Satan. He will do everything within his diabolical power to sow the seeds of helplessness and hopelessness in our hearts. He will remind you incessantly of your past failures, insisting that God could not possibly love someone who has so frequently sinned. He will speak to you in a very familiar voice calling out his “Satanic toos.” Maybe you’ve heard them like I have – “You’re too ugly for God to love, too dumb, too fat, too poor, too weak, too untalented, and worst of all, even if you overcome these deficiencies, you’re too late. Those are the lies he uses to keep us from being free. Well, let me tell you the good news! Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:1-8, ESV). But how? That seems to be the most frequently asked question. Let me suggest five practical steps when you don’t feel loved. 1. First, remind and refresh yourself of the fact of God’s undying love, even when you don’t feel it. Go back to Zephaniah 3:17. Read it. Memorize it. Remember that the fact of God’s love does not depend on our ability to feel it. God’s love is not a reflex response to our love for Him. 2. Second, be obedient to what you know. You are not expected or required to know everything. However, God does desire us to be faithful to what we do know. This may require confessions and repentance. 3. Third, pray. Come before the Lord and ask that the joy of your salvation be restored. Ask Him for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 4. Fourth, worship your way into the experience of His love. Take up the name of God on your lips and give Him the glory due Him. God has promised to inhabit the praise of His children. Begin the praise! 5. Fifth, wait. The first four steps come easily. The last is more difficult. But we must wait. We must patiently persevere. So wait.