by Joyce Meyer
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by Zondervan Corporation. New Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by Permission.
First eBook Edition: November 2008
ISBN: 978-0-446-54986-8
Copyright © 1995 by Joyce Meyer
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Contents
Introduction
1: God Loves You!
2: Am I Good Enough?
3: Love Is Relationship
4: Love, Trust and Faith
5: Freedom From Fear
6: Love Reaches Out
7: God’s Love Will Change You
Experience a New Life
About the Author
Books by Joyce Meyer
Introduction
I believe that what people need more than anything is a revelation of God’s love for them personally. I believe this to be the foundation upon which victorious living as a Christian must stand. We do not need head knowledge concerning God’s love; we need a revelation. This can only be given by the Holy Spirit and will be given as each believer meditates upon the love of God, observes the love of God in his own life and seeks that revelation through the written Word of God and also through prayer.
It is fairly easy to accept that God loves the whole world enough to send Jesus to die for the world. But it is a little more difficult to believe that if you had been the only person on the face of the earth, that God loves you so much that He would have sent Jesus to die for you and you alone.
After many years of being a frustrated Christian, I came to understand God’s love. God graciously revealed to me, through the Holy Spirit, His love for me personally. That single revelation has changed my entire life and my walk with Him.
I believe that what you read in this book will bring you new insight and understanding concerning the love of God. I believe it will place a new hunger in you to have this revelation for your very own. I exhort you to read the book slowly, to use it as a study aid and to meditate upon the Scriptures and the thoughts that you will find contained in the pages that follow.
This book is submitted to you in humility, knowing that I am nothing apart from Him and that whatever revelation and understanding I have of His Word, it is only by His grace.
1
God Loves You!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
God wants a family, so God made us to be His kids. He does not want us to act like babies, but He wants us to act like His kids. He wants us to depend on Him, rely on Him, lean on Him, love Him and let Him love us. He wants us to trust Him and to reach out to Him when we have a need. He wants to have a personal relationship with you.
Most of us take John 3:16 in too broad a scope. “Oh, yes, I know Jesus died for the world,” but we are not just a group of general people down here that Jesus died for. He died for each one of us. He died for you!
If you had been the only person on the face of this earth, He would have died just for you. He would have gone through all the suffering for you. He died for you! God loves you so much. He loves you with an everlasting love.
One day I was driving down the road, and God spoke to my heart and said, “Joyce, you’re the apple of My eye.” I didn’t even know that Scripture was in the Bible. The devil came in with a thought right behind that and said, “Well, isn’t that a bunch of pride? Who do you think you are?” And so I thought to myself, “Oh, I shouldn’t be thinking like that.” It goes against our carnal thinking to realize that we are special, that we are gifted, that we are different. Each one of us is an individual, created by our Father to be different from the person next to us.
As I was thinking about it, God showed me a little mental picture of a lady standing in a supermarket by a large pile of apples. She looked all around and found one that was really super then reached in to get the very best one. What God was saying to me was that I was the best apple to Him. I was the special one. That doesn’t seem right, but you see, God says that to every one of us. It isn’t that He is saying that you are really someone neat, and everyone else is no good. He is saying that we are all special. It is in the Word, and the Word is for every one of us. You are the apple of God’s eye.
I didn’t receive what God had said to me because I felt condemned thinking such nice things about myself. About two days later I opened my Bible to Psalm 17:8, and there it was staring me in the face: “Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.” I said, “Oops, that was really God. I am the apple of God’s eye.” For the longest time, I felt so special every time I thought about it.
People have a craving, and a longing, and a desire in their hearts to be loved. God made us that way. Many people believe that God loves the world and that He loves Jesus, but they have a hard time believing that God loves them. Yet the Word teaches that God loves them as much as He loves Jesus. He loves you as much as He loves Jesus. Let’s look at John 5:20:
“For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.”
God says here, “I’m doing all these great things through Jesus, and greater things than this through Jesus, that you may marvel” (author’s paraphrase). Do you know that it is fine to marvel at something, to be in awe of what God is doing?
We read these Scriptures, but we often miss what God wants to do for us. He wants us to look at the great works He did through Jesus and just marvel and say, “Boy, God, that’s wonderful what You did through Jesus.” Then He wants you to turn in the Bible to John 14:12 where Jesus says: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
God will do the same things through you, and greater works than these shall you do because Jesus went to His father. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that God loves you and will use you?
The Lord ministered to me one day when I was studying and said, “Joyce, I do so many things for people every day because I love them, and they don’t ever see it. They don’t recognize it at all. I’ll give you just one example. Every day when I speak to the sun and say ‘Rise,’ I did it for Joyce, for Betty, for Jamie, for (fill in your name here).”
Stop and think about that. The sun rises in the sky every day for you. Yes, the sun! And we just take that for granted. We know the sun is going to come up every day, but it rises for you. When the rain comes in its season, it rains for you. When the snow comes, it comes for you. God loves you that much.
Deuteronomy 7:9 says,
“Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”
Do you think that a thousand generations is long enough for you to get in on the love of God? You see, He is an ever-lasting God, and you can�
�t wear God out. A lot of us think that we have just worn God out with our failures and messes, but you can’t do that. Love can’t be worn out, and you can’t get God not to love you. Love is not something God does. It is Who He is.
Even the dirtiest, rottenest sinner that ever walked the face of this earth and would spit in the eyes of Jesus and say, “I want nothing to do with you; I’m perfectly satisfied to go to hell” - God loves him. So how could He not love those who have been chosen and set apart for God’s purpose?
You may have already said, “I receive Jesus into my heart, and I love Him.” But I ask you, how much do you believe God loves you?
This is a very simple message to you: God loves you. But this is the basic foundation that God has to lay in you for you to understand everything else.
No matter what else you learn and how hard you study and seek the things of God, if you can’t accept the fact that God loves you, you are not going to get very far. God’s love for you is the foundation for your faith, for your freedom from sin and for your ability to step out in ministry to others without fear. Will you receive His love for you?
God loves you!
2
Am I Good Enough?
“Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
“While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.
“Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die.
“But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.
“Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.”
Romans 5:5-10 AMP
Many of us can believe that God loves us as long as we don’t mess up. Most people don’t like themselves very much, so they conclude that God can’t be very impressed. Yet the Bible says, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” (Ps. 8:4). We are just simply God’s creation, and He loves us because He loves us. He is love. (1 John 4:16.)
He loves you, and you are special. That means you are distinctive and unique. You are not supposed to be like me, and I am not supposed to be like you. And we will be miserable if we try to be like anyone else. All that does is give the devil an opportunity to tell you that you are not good enough. The thing is, with God, you don’t have to be “good enough.”
Did Jesus die for you because you were so great and wonderful, or did He die for you because He loved you? The Bible says that if He loved you enough to die for you, how much more then, being justified by His blood, does He now love you? (Rom. 5:8,9.) He loves you enough to cover your little daily mistakes. He loves you enough to get you through this day in power and victory.
God showed me an example one day of how He sees our mistakes and short-comings. Imagine a little kid, about three or four years old, who is always watching mommy do her housework. She loves mommy so much that she gets a little bucket of water and a little rag and goes to the picture window on the front porch. She scrubs the window really well then gets a few paper towels and wipes the window.
Of course, it is all streaky and smeary and soapy. And when you see what she did, you realize she used your best cleaning rag, and you would like to wring her neck. But she comes in, and in her tiny sweet voice says, “Mommy, mommy, I washed your window. I did such a good job for you. I love you mommy.”
A loving mother would say, “Oh, that’s a wonderful thing you did. Thanks for helping.” Then, as soon as the child was busy somewhere else, she would clean up the mess and give her some encouragement later not to do that again.
God told me that’s what He does for us. He always cleans up our messes. If you are doing the best that you know how to do, that’s all God expects from you. He doesn’t expect you to do something you are not able to do. He can change you if you are willing to say, “You’re right God, and I’m wrong. I’ve tried, and I can’t change it.” Then He will because He knows you can’t make yourself better without His help.
“For since He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God [proclaims God’s own message], God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit!
“The Father loves the Son and has given (entrusted, committed) everything into His hand.”
John 3:34,35 AMP
One day while I was studying, I was meditating on this verse and cried for joy when I realized that God doesn’t give us His Spirit by measure. He doesn’t give us just a little dab of this and a little dab of that.
Instead, He says, “Here, take everything I’ve got.” Every bit of God’s power and love are available to you today. He has all you need, and He wants you to receive it. Why? Because He loves you. You don’t have to be good enough to deserve it because you couldn’t do enough to deserve it anyway. You don’t have to be pretty enough or smart enough. God wants to give to you because He loves you.
In Deuteronomy 7:6,7 AMP, God said,
“For you are a holy and set-apart people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people to Himself out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
“The Lord did not set His love upon you and choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the fewest of all people.”
God chose the Israelites to be His special people, and as the Church, we are the true spiritual Israel today. So this Scripture is for you just as much as for them. He said, “I didn’t choose you because you were the largest tribe of people on the earth.” Applied to us, that would say, “I didn’t choose you because you did everything just right or because you were so wonderful.”
He goes on to say that they were fewer than anyone else. As a matter of fact, if you are like me, you probably thought you were worse than anyone else before you got saved. Yet in verse 8 AMP, God says,
“But because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
That’s shouting ground! God says, “I set my love on you, and I told you you’re holy. I told you you’re special. I chose you, not because you’re good and wonderful, but because I love you.” Do you know what God wants you to do today? He wants you to accept and receive His love.
For most of us, our biggest problem is that we don’t like ourselves. We don’t believe God loves us, or that anyone else loves us for that matter. We think, How could they - I’m such a mess? If you believe that you are nasty and ugly, then you are going to think, look and act nasty and ugly. You can’t rise above the image of yourself that’s in your heart.
My biggest problem used to be that I didn’t like myself, and I spent at least 75 percent of my time trying to change myself. I thought I talked too much, so I tried to be quiet. But then if I was quiet, I would get depressed, and everyone would want to know why I was quiet. Then I would think, But you told me I had a big mouth. Leave me alone. I’m just trying to be quiet.
I can’t tell you how many years I went through that. And still I was always getting into trouble with my mouth. A lot of people who are real talkers are married to partners who are real quiet. That just shows up your big mouth even more, and the devil will constantly remind you of it. And that’s called condemnation.
God wants you to be free from condemnation, but it takes faith and boldness to be free. Do you know that no matter how guilty you feel it is not going to pay for one thing you did wrong? It is real tough to believe that God loves you when you have done something wrong.
The whole time the devil is beating on you and beating on you with thoughts about how bad and nasty and ugly you are. “You’ve done it now,” he says. “Who do you think you are? God is never going to bless you, you dirty old thing, you. You couldn’t witness to anybody now. You can’t do anything right.”
That’s when it takes the boldness to rise up in your inner man and say, “Father, I made a mistake, and I ask you by the blood of Jesus to forgive me. I’m sincere in my heart, I want your forgiveness. Devil, you take a hike. Jesus paid for my sin, and it’s none of your business.” Then, you just go on and be happy, be joyful. But you are probably thinking, “I keep doing the same stupid thing over and over and over.” I used to think that, too, until I stopped being condemned about it. When you stop being condemned about what you have done, you will stop doing it.
Guilt and condemnation keep you weighed down and depressed to the point that you can’t be free. It takes a bold person not to be condemned. You have to be bold and operate in faith and rise up and say no to guilt. The devil will tell you, “Do you mean you’re not even going to feel bad about that? Why, you ought to at least feel bad for a few hours. That was really a bad thing you did.” All you say is, “No, I’m sure not. I’m not going to feel bad about it at all.” The first few times are tough, but it only takes three or four times, and you get the hang of it.
In Isaiah 53, verses 5,6 and 11 in the Amplified Bible it tells us that when Jesus took our sins for us that He also bore the guilt (and that includes condemnation). The devil doesn’t want you to be free from condemnation. Why? Because if you are condemned, you can’t really bask in the love of God. Condemnation separates you from God and comes down between you and God like a steel wall. You can’t see Father God when you are standing in guilt. All you can see is the guilt and the sin in front of you.
