Barriers to Experiencing God’s Love
Does God’s love seem out of reach? One of our mentors would like to talk to you about that.
“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever” (Psalm 107).
Let me give two more reasons why we have such a hard time accepting God’s love.
All of us have experienced rejection in life.
- You may have felt rejected by one or both parents because you could never please.
- You may have felt rejected in school because you were “different.”
- You may have felt rejected at work because you didn’t slough off like the rest.
- You may have felt rejected by a spouse or by your children. They don’t call nearly often enough, do they?
- You may have experienced a love that didn’t last. At first, it seemed like you had found a kindred spirit. You did everything together. Then something happened. The phone calls didn’t come as often and when you phoned, you got the busy signal. Eventually, the calls stopped coming altogether. And when you met in person, there was a coldness there.
These unhappy experiences have colored our idea of God’s love. We’ve become cynical. When we read, “God’s love endures forever,” we wonder how long is forever really.
The Bible gives the following adjectives when describing God’s love: everlasting, eternal, faithful, unfailing…
The second reason we find it hard to accept God’s love is that sin has hardened our hearts so we can’t absorb God’s love. We’re like a pebble in the brook: it has all that life-giving water flowing over it, but it can’t absorb it. It remains cold and unyielding.
We must get rid of the sin so that our hearts become soft again. Confess your sin to God (specifically name it), repent of it (I’m sorry and turn away from it) and receive God’s forgiveness (know you are cleansed.)
Knowing that God loves you makes all the difference in the world.
Then no matter what happens, you have stability–a solid rock under your feet. A refuge in the storm. A Friend who walks with you and talks with you. A Confidant with whom it is safe to pour out your heart. A Person who understands you, believes in you, and fights for you.
You see, His love never cools off. After all, His love is everlasting, eternal, faithful, unfailing…
Dear God, I want to have a soft heart so that I can receive more of Your love. Please fill up the ground of my heart by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Question: What must I do to become more receptive to God’s love?
About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid
Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, How God Reveals Himself, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog
Tags: barriers, Bible, different, god's love, helen lescheid, love, parents, rejected, understands
Helen, thank you for the devotional. To become more receptive to God’s love, I need to continue to do what it is I am and that is showing my gratitude and humility with every blessing, be the blessing good, bad or indifferent.
I have always struggled with God’s Love for me, and it is because of most of the reasons you give in your article. Thr biggest one is never being able to please my parents no matter what I did, good or bad, so of course I would live continulously work hard to always try to be good but still never hearing I’m proud of you for anything. I still to this day feel that is what I do while striving for God’s Love and acceptance never truly beleiving that I will ever please Him, or that He will ever be pleased with me. It seems there is always a wall of stone between me and God even when I think I’m being good and doing good so God should Love me and the wall should dissapear, but it remains, and causes me to say forget it and throw my hands up.
The types of rejections that were mentioned in the devotional could have caused the hindrances to my experiencing God’s love in an intimate way. With every form of rejection by man, I erect an invisible wall around myself. At the same time, I tend to love myself lesser each time. It is hard to comprehend and accept God’s unconditional and everlasting love with the human mind.
Thanks for that! You had help in my assignments!