Question: I can believe that God loves other people.  But, with a past like mine, how could God really love somebody like me?

Answer:  First, know that you are not alone in feeling this way.  There are many people with pasts that include everything from using illegal drugs and drunkenness, to stealing, sexual promiscuity, and even murder who think there’s no hope for them to have a true relationship with a Holy God.  But that is simply not true.  These are just lies of the devil!

The Bible gives us many examples of how God has used people with troubled pasts.  Take the prostitute Rahab.  She hid the messengers of God when they needed help.  Joshua 6:25 tells us that as a result of her actions  — despite her background — Rahab and her household were saved by God.  And in another example, look at the life of the Apostle Paul, a well-known persecutor and murderer of Christians, who was later used by God to be a great Christian leader.  In 1st Timothy 1:15, Paul himself says:  “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (NKJV)

In fact, Satan even tried to get Jesus to believe his lies.  Luke 4: 1 – 13 tells us how Satan encountered Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days trying to tempt Jesus to turn His back on God and worship him instead.  It didn’t work.  Satan failed to tempt Jesus away from God.  In verse 8, Jesus responds by saying, “Get behind Me, Satan!  For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.'”  So if Satan tried to get Jesus away from God, you know he is trying to get you.  Don’t fall for his lies!

The truth is that God actually wants to have a relationship with us.  But, as it says in Romans 3:23, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”  And our sins do separate us from God.  But because God loves us so much He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him and to be able to join Him in Heaven one day.  That one and only way is through Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.  Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment we deserve for our sins.   When we accept Jesus as our Savior and ask Him to forgive us of our sins and repent, we are reconciled to God.  See John 3:16.

So remember, Satan doesn’t want you to have a relationship with God.  He wants you to stay wallowing in your sins and separated from God because of them, and on your way to hell with him.  Jesus says, “The thief  (Satan) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)   So, while we must realize that Satan wants us to feel unloved by God and defeated, we can stand strong against his lies.  We can go into the new year knowing that we, indeed, have God’s love.  Praise the Lord!

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