Finding the Goodness of God - Pt 1

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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 4:13-16 ESV). Yesterday we saw the importance of seeing the goodness of God in the ordinary blessings of life. I am sure that many began to ask “how?” Today we will begin to examine that part of this principle. The first principle is to understand with absolute certainty that God loves you. Anybody who has accepted Jesus into their life must know that God loves them and that Jesus died because of this amazing love. However, knowing things in our heads is not the same as knowing things in our hearts and accepting God’s love can sometimes be a bit more complex. Many people I see each day struggle with guilt. They have come to a crisis of life and feel as if they have failed. They believe that if they could have somehow done better, been better, or performed better they would not have failed. While it is true that all of us have looked at past failures with some level of regret, we must not take those failures into our present life without the knowledge of the love of God. He does not measure us against our performance. We are measured by the performance of Christ, who is perfect, and has taken our place before God. His love for us is the same as his love for His beloved Son. Let me dig a little deeper with you. Our focus often is how we might compare ourselves to what we ought to be. We begin to look at ourselves and others and come to the conclusion that we ought to be a better husband, parent, employee, friend, neighbor, or church member. This is often the message of so many sermons and self-help books. The problem is that it can only lead to failure. Just as soon as I get better at any role I have, I find there is still more to be done and better is not good enough. Some have suggested that we don’t need to compare ourselves to others; rather, we need to be like Jesus. That means instead of being better, we now must be perfect. Let me know how that works out for you! It leads to a deeper level of failure. The key is found in our understanding the full work of Christ on our behalf. He has lived the perfect human life so that he might be our substitute. God loves us because he loves His Son. Believe it!