Day 16 He Loves Me! He Loves Me Not! He Loves Me! He Loves Me Not!

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38 & 39 NKJ

Growing up when my friends or I had a crush on a boy we played the game where you pull the petals off a flower and say “he loves me, he loves me not.” And whichever statement you landed on when the last petal was pulled, determined if that boy would love you. It was interesting because whichever statement we landed on determined if we were happy or sad for the rest of the day. We actually believed this lie and acted upon it continually. Even though we proved to ourselves time and time again that the game wasn’t true, we continued to play it every time we had a new crush on a boy.

After several years of failed projections on love I came to a place of maturity and gave up on the childish game, or so I thought. Though I quit playing the actual game with the flowers and I quit trying to determine if a boy liked me, I subconsciously played the game in my relationship with God for several years. If I acted right or made good choices in my life, I told myself He loves me. If I acted bad or made poor choices, I told myself He loves me not.

And sure enough just like the childhood game, I would act on the feelings of being loved or not being loved, for the rest of the day. I played this game with God for years until I really studied the Bible and came to understand that God doesn’t love me based on my actions! He loves me period! And I discovered that there is nothing I can do to make Him love me more and there is nothing I can do to make him love me less! NOTHING in my life, good or bad, can separate me from God’s love!

There are still times when my mind tries to go back to the old way of thinking but as I take my thoughts captive and align them with Scripture, I am able to block them from taking root! The enemy wants to get us to believe that we can lose God’s love because he knows this way of thinking will cripple us in our relationship with God. He also knows that we will spend countless hours wasting time on fear driven emotions which will keep us from communing with God.

When we recognize the lie we have to take action to destroy it and to replace it with the truth. In order to change our destructive way of thinking we must change what we think about. In this case I had to change the way I thought about God’s love by constantly telling myself He loves me no matter what! And then I had to back it up by meditating on Scriptures that validated it. This is an action step of faith and when we take it God is faithful and will renew our minds with His truth.

James 4:7 gives us the formula to overcoming the destructive cycle of thinking. It says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” It is our responsibility to submit ourselves to God through study, prayer, praise, and meditation on the Word. Then it is our responsibility to resist the temptation to believe the devil’s lies. When we do these two things the devil has to flee! He cannot continue his pursuit when you are submitting and resisting!

Today I want to encourage you to examine your beliefs and determine if you too have been engaged in the childish game with God the way I was. Submit yourself to God and take the time to learn His truths so you can resist the temptation to believe the devil’s lies. Write down Scriptures that validate God’s love for you and meditate on them daily. There is a peace and joy that comes when one does this that can't be explained in words! It is not something that can be explained, only experienced!

Prayer: Today I choose to believe your truth about loving me over the devil’s lies! I believe by faith that as I demolish my false beliefs about you I will experience inner peace and joy in my life! I commit myself to learning your word and believing it. I praise you for loving me and for making it impossible for me to ever be separated from your love! I will continually remind myself that you love me by choice not based on my actions! Thank you for choosing to love me and may I always apply this truth in my life. Amen.