Many of us don't know and understand the love God has for us, so it's hard for us to be completely dependent on Him. First John 4:16 says, "And we have known and believed the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (NKJV).

We know God loves us because He tells us so. And, we know by His actions. He sent His only Son to suffer and die in order to take away our sins and provide us with eternal life so we could be with Him forever.

Many of us intellectually know that God loves us. But do we really believe He loves us? Do we claim all that He has for us?

Knowing and believing are two separate things. If we believe God loves us, we have no cause to worry about anything. He is the only one who will never let us down. There is no one like Him.

Many times we feel we don't deserve God's love, but it's not about what we do to earn His love. It's about what He did for us--He gave.

What matters to God is that we learn to accept His love as freely given to us. God's love makes it possible for us to work through any situation that comes our way. read more

2:49PM EDT 8/3/2010

We've all suffered injustice. But no matter how grievous the offense, as we've been forgiven, we must forgive.

Every day in our world, in our society and in our individual communities, somebody is treated unfairly. Someone is hurt, even though he or she didn't deserve it. Someone is lied to or lied about. Someone is ignored or attacked. Someone is singled out or discriminated against. Many of us don't have to look far to find such mistreatment--because we're the ones who experience it!

If you've been the object of slanderous gossip at church, or passed over for a promised promotion on the job, or harassed because of someone else's prejudice and fear, join the club. We all feel the pain of unfair treatment at some point in our lives. read more

7:00PM EST 3/31/2002

God does not want our money or labor--He wants our empty lives. In exchange for our surrender, He gives us His life and faithful, unwavering love.

God fills our lives with His beauty so we can radiate His glory. But we cannot come to Him in the strength of our own merits. We must strip ourselves of the lies we've believed and embrace His truth.

God calls us to the river of baptism where we are totally immersed into life; all that is death is washed away. Such a rebirth is available in every area of our lives.

We must look beyond what we see to what God sees. We must acknowledge our need for Him, our need for His help. Ask Him to sow seeds of truth into the soil of your humbled heart (see Is. 55:10-11).

The seed of truth is first planted in the rich soil of your spirit. As it grows, we must tend it as we would a natural garden, watering it with more of God's Word and uprooting any weeds of destruction and deception.

Some of the seeds that have been planted in your life may have produced pain and heartache; these need to be uprooted. You must plant new seeds of truth that will yield a harvest of healing and strength for your life. read more

10:12AM EDT 8/5/2010

When you come to the end of any season that's been hard, tough or heartbreaking, it's usually as difficult to conclude as it has been to live. The end of such a time often becomes the start of a soul's long night of restlessness, reliving the struggle and re-experiencing its pain.

But into such days, moments or seasons of the soul, Jesus' closing words from the cross speak a principle of discipleship laden with wisdom: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46, NKJV).

There is something sublime about Jesus' final words from the cross. Though sometimes overlooked, their message points the way to wisely conclude any bad day, any trying experience: Place it into the hands of God and leave it there.

There are dozens of life issues that call us to follow Jesus' pathway in living through tough times, issues that are seldom as quick to pass as we would wish and that always call us to the cross to hear the Savior's words again, "Into Your hands I commit."

Committing ourselves into His hands may be the key for some of us to enter a new day--or new year--with newfound expectancy, notwithstanding the "bad" behind us.

For Jesus, the end of it all finally was revealed in a resurrection. For you and me--where "surrender" is truly made--there's full reason to expect precisely the same. read more

4:18PM EDT 8/4/2010

Often people with problems are made to feel sub-Christian. We view them as an inconvenience because they require more time than we want to give.

Talking with them about anything other than the weather might get us entangled in their struggles, so we pass a few pleasantries and quickly find our seats. We rush out after the sermon, more concerned with the football game on television than the person next to us in the pew whose life is shattered.

How can we say, "I love God" when our interaction with the needy is governed by such self-serving, don't-disrupt-my-routine snobbery?

Have we deceived ourselves about the love of God? "Dear friends," pleads John, "since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11, NIV).

So, how does one actually love another? Ask yourself: "Am I the sort of Christian with whom someone would feel comfortable sharing? Or am I intimidating?

"Does my demeanor say, 'Yes, I want to help; Yes, I care?' Or do I communicate, 'Stay away; you're a disgrace?'"

Then ask God to make you a minister of His compassion and acceptance. Allow Him to use your life to heal the brokenhearted. read more

10:00AM EDT 6/24/2010

Sometimes, in order to trust God, we must be reminded who He is, what He's capable of doing, what He's done in the past, and what He's currently doing on our behalf.

One of the greatest problems in our generation is the diminishment of our perspective of God—we have lost the biblical perspective of His majestic greatness. We read of His greatness in Genesis, His majesty in Exodus and His miraculous power in the Acts of the Apostles, but we fail to see Him the "same yesterday, today and forever" (Heb. 13:8, NKJV).

To understand the sovereignty of God is to acknowledge that nothing began with us—and it probably won't end with us. We are simply a part of the successive, progressive work of God, and by His greatness we occupy a moment of time in a generation.

We live in Him. We move in Him. We breathe in Him. And we do His will as long as He gives us life.

When our mission is complete, and our time is over, He raises up another generation and continues to do what He has been doing from the foundation of the world. Nothing stops God in His eternal purpose.

Nations rise and fall and are reborn under the banner of a new hope. A church grows and is celebrated, then dies a terrible death because of a split or moral failure in the leadership. But these things don't stop the work of the kingdom of God.

The eternal purpose of God is greater than a nation, a church or a generation. But sometimes it is hard to see God's greatness because our image blocks the Son. The key is not in making God larger, but in making ourselves smaller in our own eyes.

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2:29PM EDT 6/25/2010