Are You Lovable?

Are you lovable? During my freshman year in college, I surrendered my life to Christ. It was the first time I’d heard a biblical introduction to who Jesus Christ was and the full implications of his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection. I was greatly humbled that he would die on the Cross for me and that I had been ignorant of Jesus Christ for the first seventeen years of my life. Romans 5:8 touched me deeply, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I didn’t grow up in a Christian home nor had I ever read the Bible until that season of life. As I read through the scriptures, I was floored by this man Jesus. It was life-changing to say the least. The theme of God’s love captivated me during the first year walking with him. Yet it remained a mystery to me as if I were on the outside looking in.

Others were lovable, but one—me.

Have you ever felt like that? It’s easy in Christian circles to believe that God is love. We sing about it. We might even holler an “Amen!” when the preacher mentions the love of God. But somehow the lie creeps in that there’s an exception to the rule, and that exception is me. At the time I would have argued vehemently that God loved me, but my sagging soul betrayed me: “I’m unlovable!” was the insidious lie that weighed me down.

Initially when I was born again, I received “the free gift of God [that] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). That was just the starting point. There was more. As I grew in my faith during those early days, I came to understand more fully what that meant for me: My future wasn’t defined by who I was previously or even by the present sins I had committed—instead, I was to experience now what was destined for me as a son for all of eternity. I was to experience his great love towards me now.

Honestly it took a long time for the revelation of his love for me to saturate my entire soul. Deception plagued me as “the father of lies” (John 8:44) perpetuated his venomous lies in my soul. I carried a lot of baggage. Though I longed to be loved, at the core of my being I felt unlovable.

Do you struggle with the truth that the Father loves you? We have been theologically conditioned to nod no when we hear such a question. Perhaps I should frame the question like this: Is there any part of who you are that feels unlovable?

I had to engage daily in the pursuit of Him through the “renewing of [my] mind” (Romans 12:2) so that I no longer believed the lies that had been entrenched in my soul. There was a convergence of a perfect storm that finally settled the issue, once and for all. It was the mark of sonship according to Romans 8:15—“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”

It was the revelation as a son that enabled me to finally receive His love based on what he declared through the Word of God concerning me (versus what my feelings told me). I was no longer an orphan. The last remaining vestiges of lies hidden within my soul were replaced with the revelation of His truth. As I continued to mature as a son of the Lord, this truth became bedrock within my soul: The Father loved me with the same love he had for his Son, Jesus.

This blew me away.

Though it took many years due to the lies embedded within, it was finally settled—the Father loved me, Brian Francis Hume, with the same love he lavished upon his Son, Jesus Christ! I was no longer a helpless orphan, but a son of God, confident in his Father’s love. I was not defined by lies incessantly whispering, “You are unlovable.” Simply stated, I had to refute the lie that I was an exception to the rule—rather, I had to embrace the truth that I was the recipient of the lavished love of the Father simply because I was his son (I John 3:1): “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

Are you ready to refute the lies that you are an orphan in order to embrace the truth of who you are in Christ—a son or daughter loved by the Father with the same love he lavished upon His Son, Jesus Christ?

_____

Please comment below or visit my Facebook comments here.