Thought for Today: God Still Loves You

There has been a moment that someone did or said something to you that caused you to do what you wanted to do, instead of doing what was right by God. You have been trying your best to live a life that is pleasing to God, but the world, your flesh, or the devil got the best of you. 

And you have fallen, failed, and in some cases you have just out-right sinned against God. You know it and there is no excuse, you have sinned. The devil is whispering in your ear, “See, I told you.” The world is looking at you and saying “And you call yourself a child of God.” Religious folks are pointing the finger at you telling you God will turn His back on you because you have turned you back on Him. 

As you begin to entertain the lies of your enemies, it opens the door for anxiety to find its way into your mind. And as you begin listen to the thoughts that the enemy is placing in your mind, “God doe does not like you right now, God does not want to talk to you right now, God does not even want to see your face after what you have done or said,” listening to all these opens the door for depression and loneliness in your life. 

I came by on my way to heaven to inform you that the devil is a liar. GOD STILL LOVES YOU. The reason why the world, your flesh, and especially the devil is trying to convince you that God is too angry at you right now to even look your way is because of this truth: If you repent and turn to God and ask Him to forgive you, not only will God forgive you, but He will also show you just how much HE STILL LOVES YOU. 

“God does not want to talk to me right now, Pastor Erick, because of what I did.” That is simply not true. “How do you know that, Pastor Erick?” Thus, saith the Lord, not pastor Erick, but thus saith the Lord “Come NOW (not later but NOW) and let us (you and God) reason together, saith the LORD; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Listen to this) If you be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land” (Isaiah 1:18).

Your falls in life do not surprise God. Your failures in life do not surprise God. And you need to know this truth: your sins in life do not surprise God. Stop letting religion, the world, your flesh, and especially the devil lure you out of your relationship with God. The word of God says, “If we confess our sins, HE (God, Himself) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

The strategy of hell is to try to convince you that you have to clean yourself up before you can go to God again for Him to love you. But the Spirit of the Lord says to you today, “Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3). God knows you are not perfect, God knows that you will fail and fall sometimes, and God knows that you will sin. But you need to know this truth: GOD STILL LOVES YOU. For the word of God says, “But God commendeth His love towards us (God showed you just how much He loves you) in that WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). I don’t know what you did, I don’t know what you said, but whatever it is, it did not stop God from loving you. 

Repent, turn to God and ask for forgiveness, and allow Him to not only help you, but clean up the mess that you have created with the decisions you made that did not line up with His word. And know this truth: your sins do not surprise God, no matter how many times you fall, fail or sin. GOD STILL LOVES YOU. For it is written, “Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedest against them by thy prophets; yet would they not give ear therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands. NEVERTHELESS, FOR THY GREAT MERCIES SAKE THOU DIDST NOT UTTERLY CONSUME THEM NOR FORSAKE THEM FOR THOU ART A GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL GOD” (Nehemiah 9:30-31).

God’s love for you does not give you permission to live a life that you want to live. When you truly know that God loves you, His love for you will push you into living the best life possible to show Him just how much you love HIM. LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS. No matter what you have done, you need to know this truth that GOD STILL LOVES YOU. Receive God’s love today and Be Blessed.

By Erick Young

Thought for Today: LET’S SEE

Every time the world, your flesh, or the devil comes at you, oftentimes they are not coming after your faith in God. God has healed you or your loved ones from a sickness that could not be healed. God has made a way out of no way in a certain matter in your life. God has provided for you when nothing or no one else could.  God has granted you His peace in the storms, He has shown you His grace and mercy in your failures in life. And so, every now and then the enemy will switch up his strategy and not attack your faith in God, knowing that you have already experienced God for yourself. You know in your heart that God is who He says He is, and that God will do what He said He would do. 

You may be asking, “If the enemy is not attacking my faith in God, Pastor Erick, then what is he attacking?” There are times in life where the world, your flesh, and the devil will begin to attack your INTEGRITY. As a child of God, you have to understand the truth of what Jesus was saying in John 17:16, “They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”

I know this may sound crazy but as a child of God you need to grab ahold of this truth; YOU ARE NOT NORMAL. The word of God says, “Therefore if any man/woman be in Christ, he/she IS A NEW CREATURE; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” You see, the integrity of a person is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and moral uprightness. 

Your flesh will at times test your integrity, “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that you would. Will you hold on to having strong moral principles and moral uprightness? Or will you give into your flesh?” (Galatians 5:17). This is testing your INTEGRITY in Christ. 

The world will present all that it has to offer you, to test TO SEE if you will keep your INTEGRITY IN CHRIST, or will you give into what the world says, what the world thinks, and what the world does? On many occasions the enemy is not attacking your faith in God, they are attacking your INTEGRITY. Are you really who you say you are in Christ?

The word of God says “Be ye Holy for I am Holy” (1 Peter 1:16). And the devil says LET’S SEE if you are who you say you are or if you are just like everybody else. The word of God says “But he/she that is joined unto the LORD IS ONE SPIRIT” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Are you going to hold on to God’s unchanging hand or will you let go of God’s hand and deal with the matter on your own? Are you really who you say you are in Christ? The enemy is not just testing your faith in God, they are testing your INTEGRITY IN CHRIST. 

The word of God says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path” (Proverbs 2:5-6). On many occasions the enemy is not after your faith in God, on many occasions the enemy attacks the INTEGRITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. Are you who you say you are in Christ? The world, the flesh, and the devil are saying to you today LET’S SEE. 

Let’s see if you will hold on to the peace of God that surpasses all understanding when all hell breaks out in your life. LET’S SEE if the Lord is really your shepherd and you shall not want. LET’S SEE if you really believe the Lord is your provider. LET’S SEE if God is your healer. LET’S SEE if God is your help in a time of need. LET’S SEE if you will let God make a way out of no way. Sometimes the enemy will not attack your faith in God. On many occasions the enemy tests your INTEGRITY. Are you really who you say you are?

For it is written, “And the LORD said unto satan ‘hast thou considered my servant Job (put your name right here) that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth (honor and respect) God and escheweth evil? And still, he HOLDETH FAST HIS INTEGRITY, although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without a cause?’” (Job 2:3).

Sometimes the enemy will test your integrity, THEY WANT TO SEE if you are who you say you are in Christ. Hold on to God’s word and LET THEM SEE the power of Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.

Be Blessed