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“God’s love is enough.” It all comes down to this phrase and whether we believe it or not. With all the ups and downs that come with life. When our faith is tested like no other. In all the trust issues that come with people disappointing us. It all boils down to if we really believe God's love is enough with nothing added to it. If we don’t truly believe this, then we will ALWAYS look for love outside of God. (I've been guilty of this.) Love from other people feels amazing but even love from the most loving person on earth can fall short.
I don't think it's by coincidence that we have to work at loving people every day. Why? Because we are all imperfect people so how we love is imperfect. And if God's love was like ours, I can see why you have a hard time believing God loves you. There comes a point where we have to know that nobody can love us like the one who made us and so all the validation and confirmation we need comes from God. I can admit that I am a work in progress with accepting everything I just said lol.
I like mixing spiritual and practical so I love real world examples. So sis, think of it as deposits and withdrawals. God deposited one lump sum of all the love we need. It's available but it's pending based on whether we accept it or not. The love that we receive from other people is small deposits or withdrawals. It's why we eventually will feel so depleted without God.
Here’s a beautiful thing ---When we determine that God's love is enough, it can fill the void that any parent left. There are four foundational things that we need from our parents in order for us to become healthy, successful adults. We need to feel safe, secure, soothed (comforted), and seen. When one or more of those four things are missing, we grow up feeling like we aren’t enough. But God comes in and makes up for what our parents didn’t have the capacity to give. Parents do the best they can. God is Creator to us but if we let him in, he can also be a parent to us.
When we know that HIS love is enough...like TRULY believe it down in our soul---then we can’t just settle with any partner because we know what real love is supposed to look like. (Read 1 Corinthians 13 to find out what God's love looks like. Replace "God" with the word, "love" because God is love.) When we understand that God's love is enough, we will realize that we are enough. How? Because He said so.
Here’s something I shared a little while back on social media that I want to go back to—
God’s love is enough.
God’s love is enough.
God’s love is enough.
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Sometimes, we just have to repeat this over and over until the day it clicks and we actually believe it. As the days go by, I’m learning that all the self-love in the world can’t compete with the love God offers us. It’s only through knowing, believing, and understanding God’s love that we can even begin to love ourselves.
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Here are some words of wisdom from a devotional I came across that we can repeat to ourselves daily—
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“God’s love is enough for me even when it doesn’t feel like it. Any relationship God blesses me with outside of my relationship with Him is the icing on the cake...It’s an added blessing to what I already have in God. Only God can give me the love I need. Only God can fill any void that I’m feeling.”
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Source: Daughters of the King Daily Devotionals (I recommend downloading the app! )
I’ve discussed it time and time again but I have struggled with truly loving myself for most of my life. I’ve always been extremely critical of myself to the point where it wasn’t healthy. And I knew it was unhealthy. Fast forward to now. I’ve been in therapy the past couple of months and it has truly been a Godsend. I share this not to put my business out there but to share a few words of wisdom that I've picked up. I was told, “You won’t be able to love yourself until you ACCEPT the love that God already has for you.”
It sounded so basic to me at that moment since it’s something I am aware of. However, something clicked after I thought about it. God’s love is freely given to us. And sis, our only job is to accept it. We don’t have to work at getting God to love us. All this time, I had been trying to work at loving myself and work at feeling loved by God instead of starting with the fact that God loves me. Not just the future me but who I am NOW, as is. Remind yourself of this. Think of this blog post as my pep talk to you.
Sis, the first step towards believing God’s love is enough is simply deciding that it is. I’ve asked God, why do you love me? And the truth is, God has no reason to love us. ZERO reasons. But that’s it! He CHOOSES to. It’s not because we’re so great or because of anything we do. God’s just like, here it is! And I think that’s the hard part. It’s hard to accept love without motive. It’s hard to accept love without conditions. We tend to question the intention of God’s love because it sounds “too good to be true.”
That leads to the next piece of what blocks us from believing God loves us...
We have to tackle what goes through our minds—-our thoughts. Maybe you’re like me where I have said out of my mouth, “God loves me.” But my thoughts would say, “You aren’t enough.” I never realized how negative my thoughts were and how it was affecting my relationship with God. I knew all the right stuff to say but I wasn't really believing what I was saying. This was due to years of negative self-talk and past trauma.
So what thoughts are you telling yourself? Chances are if you’ve had these same thoughts—maybe you've experienced some form of trauma. (I highly recommend therapy or counseling to give you the tools to tackle the roots of your thoughts and to guide you through healing from your past .)
When the negative thoughts come, here are some things that we can remember about why God truly loves you and me:
#1: We can know God loves us because he said so.
It sounds simple but it boils down to if we believe God or not. We can have all the questions in the world and ask questions until we die. But at some point, we have to have faith.
We may have heard John 3:16 quoted but I challenge us to take a look at it with new eyes. It’s one thing to know a verse and another thing to believe it.
I think it’s easy to believe that God loves other people but we just can’t comprehend how or why He’d love us. You know, the real us that we are afraid to show everyone else. But God loves us not because of who we are but because of who he is. Here’s a quote that explains it ALL ---
“Love is not only what God does; it is who God is. He cannot stop Himself from loving us, because He is love. He cannot help but love you no matter what you do or do not do. That means His love for us is based entirely on His character and not our performance. All of us have to get to the place where we understand that God loves us just as much in our “broken state”. He ever would in our “perfected state.” This doesn’t give us permission to stay the same because God’s love also calls us to grow.
#2: We can know that God loves us because even though he didn’t need us, he chose to create us.
God didn’t need us here but he wanted us here. And he didn’t stop there. We aren't here just because...he created us with purpose. Sis, you have a purpose. There is a reason you are alive. You may not see it yet but if you keep living, the reason you are here will become clear.
You may be reading this and you’ve been questioning God and his existence. You may not be convinced that you have a purpose. But can I bring this perspective?—You and I could have been born at any time. The 1200s, 1500s, or 2030s. Think about it. Millions and millions of years have passed. But we just so happened to be born in this time period. Why now? Was that by chance? To me, that can only point to an intentional Creator who needed you and has a plan for you.
#3: We can know God loves us because he died to prove it.
Love is action. If you believe, you will know that God showed us his love by sending Christ to die for us. I don't know about you but to me, the greatest demonstration of love is through sacrifice. Sacrifice to me says "I choose you over myself." If that ain't love, I don't know what is.
So sis, hope you finished reading this blog post knowing God loves you. I'll tell you upfront, you are not going to always FEEL it but you have to always know it. God's love is more than a feeling. When your life feels like it is falling apart, God loves you. He's not going to leave your life a mess. When your boyfriend breaks up with you, God loves you. He has someone better for you. When you're struggling with that thing that no one knows about, God loves you. Sis, know that you are absolutely loved! It's a done deal. Our job is to just accept the love that’s available to us. It may be a process for you like it has been for me. But you’ll get there!
