Ever Have Doubts?
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. – 1 John 4:4.
Ever have doubts about whether God really loves you or if you even really know Him? Are you really His child? I remember a day 40 something years ago when I spent several hours in prayer. I was praying and reading the book of 1st John. John says at the beginning of the book, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:4).” After those hours in prayer, I have never doubted my salvation. I know that I know that I know I am a child of God.
Not only do we have doubts sometimes about our salvation but sometimes we doubt God’s love for us. D. L. Moody (The great evangelist of the last half of the 19th century.) tells of a paralyzed man he once met in Scotland. The man had been paralyzed since he was 15 years old, but Moody thought he was the happiest man he had ever met even though the man had been paralyzed 40 years. The paralyzed man admitted to Moody that sometimes he was tempted by the devil when he would see people he went to school with walk by in perfect health.
Moody asked the man what he did when he was tempted by the devil. The paralyzed man told him that he took the devil to the cross where his Lord had been crucified. He would point out to the devil the wounds in his Lord’s hands, feet, and side. Then he told the devil that his Lord loves him, and the devil leaves him every time.
Sometimes we need to remind our enemy and ourselves of our Lord’s great love for us.
(This devotional has been updated and was originally written and sent on 01.19.1999.)