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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/941856
Believe the Love by Kenneth Copeland As surprising as it may seem, most Christians do not really believe God loves them. They think they do. They mentally assent to it. In church, when the pastor preaches that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), they’re quick to say, “Amen!” But when they’re out there in the world dealing with the storms of life, they’re not so confident. They’re not absolutely sure that in every situation, God who “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16), will show that same kind of love, personally, toward them. Even most Holy Spirit-baptized, tongue-talking, WORD-confessing Christians have this problem. That’s why a lot of times their faith doesn’t work like it should. They’re trying to believe God’s WORD without fully believing He loves them. As a result, when the devil puts a little pressure on them, their faith begins to falter. They give in to fear, and start talking doubt and unbelief. It’s like what happened to the disciples in Mark 4. When they hit the storm on the Sea of Galilee, they got scared and lost their faith. They saw the storm raging and water filling the boat, and decided things didn’t look good for them. They weren’t even comforted by the fact that Jesus was right there with them, sleeping in the back of the boat. In a panic, they awakened Him and said, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (verse 38). Just imagine them saying something like that to Jesus! Imagine them looking into the eyes of the Son of Love Himself and saying to the One who loved them so much He left heaven and came to earth to pour out every last drop of His life’s blood to purchase their redemption, “Don’t You care about us? Don’t You care that we’re dying here?” Talk about gall! That’s about the worst insult the disciples could have come up with. They didn’t realize it, of course. They were talking out of ignorance because they didn’t yet know who Jesus was. We, as believers today, don’t have that excuse. We do know who Jesus is, and yet we say the same thing! Every one of us has done it at one time or another. Despite everything we know about the price Jesus paid for us, despite all the suffering He went through for our sake and all the BLESSINGS God has given us through Him, we’ve all said things like, “I just don’t know why God hasn’t healed me of this sickness. I don’t understand why He hasn’t provided the finances I need. I’m really hurting here. Sometimes I feel like He doesn’t even care!” Do you know what you’d better do when you feel like that? You’d better shut your big mouth! Words like that will just get you deeper and deeper into trouble. They’ll swing the door wide open for the devil to knock you in the head and tear up your house from one end to the other. 4 : BVOV