I want to share what LeastOne posted in a thread here.
http://www.christianforums.com/t65951-3/
Hi Saints:
One of our enemy's most viscious lies and greatest deceptions against the children of God is that the Father does not love us!
As the accuser of the brethren, he is the one whispering in your ear, "How could God love you, you ugly thing? Look at you! You are worthless! Look at all the bad things you have done!" He brings to mind your past: old sins, old fears, old disappointments. He brings feelings of depression and anguish and despair upon you. He does all of this just to convince you that God really does not love you.
And sadly, over and over we all fall for it. Time and again we believe that liar, rather than believe God's own Word:
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom.8:35)
And again, Jesus makes His love for you and for me crystal clear:
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Why do we all believe the lie rather than the greater truth? Honestly, isn't it because we each know that in us "lies no good thing". We are each painfully aware of how sinful we are in our old nasty selves. Left to our own devices we seem to always do the wrong thing. So, when the enemy starts in on us, he is not telling us anything we don't already know. In fact, all he is really doing is tricking us into focusing on ourselves, pointing out just how dirty we truly are inside and out.
So how is what he is saying a lie then? How is it deceptive of him to point out such an obvious fact?
Just this: The tremendous love God has for us is not because of who
we are in ourselves! The Father God's unbelievable love for us is because of who we are in Christ! That is the greater truth that the enemy tries so desperately to make us forget. He is trying to deceive us into looking away from Christ Jesus back toward ourselves. And that is the lie in all that he says.
Truly, apart from Christ we are nothing but sinners and deserving of God's wrath. And if we are more sin conscious than Christ conscious, we will fall for the lies of the enemy every single time.
But if we will focus on Jesus, keeping our eyes - our full attention - upon Him, then we will find that in that wonderful Man - God's Living Word - we are being formed in His Likeness. We will find that as His Life grows in us, so does His Righteousness before God grow in us; and as His Righteousness grows in us, so does His Holiness grow in us; and as His Holiness grows in us, so His Love flows in us and through us to all of those around us.
And to know the truly tremendous Love of God is an experience that cannot be fully expressed in words; it is a feeling that is beyond feelings. But that Love is what God has for each and every one of His children in Christ; that wonderful Love is what God has for you, dear saint.
Romans 8:35,38,39 - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...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 creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Keep your focus always on your Lord Jesus! Let nothing distract you, nothing pull the attention of your inner man away from Him, and as you concentrate all your energies into seeking Him you will find His Life growing more and more within you.
My prayer today for you, dear child of God, is that of Paul:
Ephesians 3:17-19 "...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
LeastOne
