God loves you
and He is for you.
I think if we grasped this truth that God is for us, we would not have any problems with prayer. We would know and believe that He enjoys hearing our voice, spending time with us, and truly wants what is best for us.
If God is for us, He wants to give us the desires of our hearts.
The other day my family was out camping and was planning on roasting marshmallows and making smores. Our trip involved us packing and unpacking everything several times in our different stops. On this particular day, I couldn’t find a lighter or matches to start a fire. My daughter became very sad and a bit angry because she was really wanting to roast marshmallows.
While she was upset that we were not going to do this, the fact was that I really wanted for the family to have this treat. She couldn’t see this at that time and assumed I was against them. We often give the same attitude towards God.
While He never loses things or finds out He can’t do something, there are times where He chooses not to give us what we want. When we don’t get our way, we expect God is keeping us from our happiness. We don’t believe God is for us. While we may not know why God doesn’t give us our desires or answer our prayers as expected, we should never assume it is because God is against us. He is a good father, and He gives good gifts (James 1:17).
If God is for us, He will always want a relationship with us.
God may not always give us what we ask for, but He will always want to be with us… to know us… to hear our hearts… to comfort us… and to love us.
Paul says that Christ’s love for us is like a marriage between a man and woman (Ephesians 5:31-32). Within marriage there are different stages of love. When my wife and I were first dating, each stage of the relationship was electrified. I can remember the first time we held hands, our first hug, our first kiss, etc. Everything was exciting.
If God is for us, He will always choose to focus on His love for us over any particular sin, mistake, or failure.
Being with God can be like this at times. We spend time with Him, and He will tell you how wonderful He thinks you are. His words overcome you because even though He knows everything about you – your faults & failures – still He likes you, wants to be with you, and thinks you can make a difference in this world.
There are also times in marriage where you don’t feel love for your spouse. Maybe life is extremely busy or stressful. Maybe the two of you are not seeing eye-to-eye and even fighting/arguing. These are times where we need to speak the truth to each other over what we are feeling. We need to tell our spouse that we love them and are committed to them.
While God’s feelings don’t vacillate like ours do, in the midst of our changing attitudes towards Him, He remains for us. He is constant in communicating His belief in us. We can do the same by speaking the truth about our love for Him over whatever feelings of frustration we may be feeling at the time. We shouldn’t ignore our feelings, but we can choose to focus on our love for Him over anything else.
If God is for us, we can expect His help in our lives. We can expect Him to lead us.
Larry was my college roommate during my junior year. He did things that were unusual to me. For instance, he didn’t like to be barefoot in the bathroom, so he wore tennis shoes in the shower. It took several weeks to learn this fact, as he also liked to take his shower at two in the morning. While he was up late, he didn’t like to oversleep, so he had a classic alarm clock that could be heard the length of the dormitory hall. This was particularly shocking when he left the alarm set even though he had went home for the weekend.
Larry also had a unique relationship with the Lord. We would go out somewhere together, and he would suddenly laugh. The group we were with would all turn towards him, and the only explanation he would give was that God told him a joke.
While this may be quirky, he would also stop in mid-conversation with you to walk over to a stranger to start up a conversation. That person would gladly enter a conversation with Larry, and the next thing we would know, this person was asking Jesus into their heart. When we would ask him about it later, Larry would say that God wanted him to talk to that person.
If God is for us, life is an exciting adventure.
If God is for us, He will want to speak to us.
Here’s the thing: it is easier to believe God would lead Larry to share his faith than God would tell him a joke. But, we also often find it easier to think God is against us rather than being for us. We have a choice about what we are going to believe. Are we going to limit God to only doing what we have seen Him do in the past, or are we going to open ourselves up to what He just might do for those who believe?
- Check out a quick list of 25 inspiring truths if God is really for us.