Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Word of Encouragement: Counselor’s Corner Does God Really Love Me?

Word of Encouragement: Counselor’s Corner
Does God Really Love Me?

If you do not understand God’s love for you, it will be difficult to grow in relationship with Him and others. Oftentimes, the way we view our parents is how we view God. If we were abandoned by our parents, abused by them, or rejected by them; this will cause us to believe God is the same way. We can attend church for years and never know the Father’s love.


Perhaps you were raised in a home that taught legalistic religion, basically this means doing good works and following rules verses having a personal relationship with Christ. We especially view God the way our earthly fathers were with us. If we were ruled with an “iron-fist” or shown no grace and mercy by our fathers, we can easily believe God will do the same with us.

God’s love is not the same as human love.

You may feel not good enough to receive God’s love. In your mind, you have sinned too much or done too much for God to embrace you. Maybe you struggle with believing that God cares about what happens to you, and you are being punished somehow for your past mistakes.

Believing that God loves you is not necessarily a feeling but a choice. A choice to believe what God says about you, not what others have said or done to you. Forgive your parents or caretakers if they did not represent God to you in a loving way, it could be that they were not shown how too. God loves you right where you are at, and He is ever working on you. God is not waiting for you to change until you can accept His love or even receive Salvation.

Believe what the Word of God says about His love:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved…Ephesians 2:4-5

But you, O Lord, are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15

Don’t let the enemy lie to you by telling you that because bad things have happened to you, or that God has not answered your prayers that He does not love you. You may wonder, “where was God when I was being abused”, or “ how can He love me if all these horrific things occurred?” I have wrestled with these questions before, but I realize now that we live in a fallen world and sometimes tragedy happens.

Does God care about the suffering that you have gone through? Yes! This can be hard to digest if you have been severely wounded in life. The people who were supposed to love and protect you, were the ones who hurt you the most. God never wanted this type of pain to happen to you. Take some time to reflect on God’s love is not like human love. God never gives up on us, He gave His life for us so we could live in eternity, and has great mercy towards us. God’s love is unconditional and He will never abandon nor forsake us.

God wants you to know today that He sees you and that HE LOVES YOU!

What experiences have kept you from receiving God’s love?


Monday, June 12, 2017

Word of Encouragement: Counselor’s Corner Have you lost your hope?


One definition of hope is a feeling that something good will happen or be true.

Christian hope is different than the world’s hope. Christian hope rests on having confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it to come to pass. Perhaps what God has promised you years ago has caused you to give up that promise will ever come to pass. Whatever God speaks to you as a promise and you can confirm the promise in the Word of God, than it shall surely come to pass. Having hope comes with faith. When it seems like what God has promised you is not coming to pass, having faith that God is faithful and will fulfill His promises to you will increase your hope.

A lack of hope leads to depression. An antidote for depression is hope, but not hope in just anything, the hope found in Jesus Christ.

Hope is an essential and fundamental element in the Christian life. Jesus is the reason for our hope, not placing our hope in what we can get from life or others. While hoping for things is not wrong, it can misplaced if we put all hope in the things we want and not in Jesus.

For in hope we have been saved, but the hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Romans 8:24-25

Hope is synonymous with salvation and blessings that are promised in scripture. Christian Hope is the confident expectation and surety that what God has promised in the Word is true, has occurred, or will happen in the future. If we put our hope in anything other than the Lord we will be disappointed.

My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is in Him. Psalm 62:5
The hope of the righteous is gladness, but the expectation of the wicked perishes. Proverbs 10:28

Hope is not a feeling or an emotion. Christian hope is different from the world, it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). This means having a hope that is not moved by circumstances or what is seen.

Sometimes, we place our hope in everything but Jesus. We may have desires and wants that are unfulfilled, and we lose our hope. If you have experienced one heartache or trial after another, it may be difficult to have hope. We have all heard the scripture,” hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12. When dreams do not come to pass, depression can easily slip in. God’s time table is not ours, and our expectations of how we think He should fulfill our desires can make us have “heart sickness.” We can actually make things worse by holding on tightly to how we perceive things in our lives SHOULD turn out.

What if God has a better plan for our lives but we are not even willing to entertain anything but what we want?

There was a time in my life I felt my heart was truly sick from waiting on my prayers to be answered. Maybe you have been praying for a prodigal child, a spouse, salvation for your family, or healing, and you have lost hope. What if God has a plan that He is working on that you are not able to see, and perhaps it may look a little different than your expectations? I believe God’s plans are better than our plans.

We must learn to wait patiently on the Lord, and trust His ways.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25

Keep hope alive by believing in God’s promises not your circumstances.

The hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2, 3:7).
Hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8, Romans 8:24-25).
Hope laid up in heaven (Colossians 1:5).
Hope for the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6).
The hope of the Gospel and the fulfillment of the promises in the Bible (Colossians 1:23).
The hope of His calling (Ephesians 1:18, 4:4).
Jesus our hope. (1 Timothy 1:1).
Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have hope for the resurrection (1 Peter 1:3, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20).





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