Jason Hanson’s dad was out of the home when Jason was two years old. Eventually Jason started using drugs, got kicked out of his house, almost committed suicide twice, experienced his sister’s suicide, started selling drugs, committed two assaults and eventually ended up in prison and accepted Jesus. But he couldn’t live a Christian life and ended up in prison three more times. Each time he got out he was a lost soul looking for life but he kept relapsing. Eventually he ran into James, a Christian man who poured his life into Jason. This transformed his life. James let Jason know that he cared about his heart, he showed him how to live a godly life, and he persevered with Jason for over eight years. In short, he re-fathered him. Incredibly, Jason eventually became a very effective youth pastor! It would not have happened without James’ fatherly love and Jason’s willingness to trust in that love. (Watch Jason Hanson’s testimony on Vimeo here.)
We need to be like Jason. Scripture tells us over and over that God loves us. Nothing can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:35-39). The ultimate demonstration of His love was giving His Son to become a human and die for us. He also gives us a new self to live from and He puts peace and kindness in our hearts. His Scripture makes us wise and transforms our life. His Spirit lies in us and actively and patiently works in us. God even answers prayers. And the best gift is that He guarantees us a fantastic eternal destiny. So shouldn’t it be easy to trust in God’s love for us?
Unfortunately, trust doesn’t come naturally to us. Consider how often we lose our faith in His love. When life starts caving in it is harder to keep faith that God loves us. “God is all powerful so if He loves me why is this happening to me?” This is when it is important to remember that in this life we have to live in a painful world even though God loves us. He is not like an earthly father who would rescue us from any major harm if he could. Instead, He transforms our hearts and enables us to show the world how a Christian lives through pain.
Jesus is our model and since we are united to Him we should also accept suffering like He did (Phil. 3:10). Just think what would happen if God protected Christians from tragedies. Eventually people would figure it out and swarms of people would flood the churches hoping for protection. But they wouldn’t be seeking God they would be seeking safety. It would ruin churches and produce hoards of hypocrites.
So it is very important that we embrace God’s love for us, both with our mind and with our heart. We cling to this until it penetrates to our core, whether we feel it or not. In fact, it is better to learn to trust His love when we don’t feel it – our faith should not depend on temporary feelings.
And it isn’t enough to believe that God loves His people in general, or that you are confident he loves the Christian around you. Rather, you need to believe this for yourself, individually, specifically, passionately. Tell yourself “God loves me” and notice how your mind and heart respond. If this harmonizes with you then you are receiving His love. Is there resistance or unbelief? That’s a sign that you need to process whatever is blocking you, let go of your unbelief and choose to trust that He loves you. If you stop believing He loves you it makes it much harder for Him to help you, just like we can’t do much for someone in need if they won’t trust us enough to take the risk of letting us help them. James couldn’t help Jason unless Jason trusted him. God does love you and the more you believe it the more it will change your life.
This was helpful for me. I was in an abusive marriage for 8 years where at times my very existence was threatened. Yet my church leadership told me I had no grounds for divorce because my husband had not committed adultery. I learned early on that my relationship with God could not be based on my emotions or feelings. While I knew that God was not the problem and that He loved me, I lost touch with His love for me on a heart level. My heart appeared dull to all emotions except fear. Twenty plus years later being dulled to emotion and the experience of God’s love is still an issue. When people speak a word to me about God delighting in me, etc. I hear it, but it does not touch my heart. I long for it to do this. (Perhaps this is what you referred to as “a resistance” in your article.) I don’t want to reject God’s love. I long to feel it, but I can not manufacture the feelings. I have never asked, “Why me?” or “Why didn’t you intervene?” Through all the difficulties, I have known that belonging to God is not a promise that my life would be void of trials or hardship. I have known He is neither the problem nor the reason.. But something was and still is amiss. In spite of my trust issues with God, (knowing He may not protect me physically) my faith has remained intact. I have trudged forward waiting for redemption. The following sentences stood out to me: “It is very important that we embrace God’s love for us, both with our mind and with our heart. We cling to this until it penetrates our core, whether we feel like it or not.” I am not sure what this looks like in real life though you do make suggestions in your closing paragraph. Thank you for the article.