When I was growing up in a family of 8 children there were times when I felt I just wasn’t loved; and yet I knew that my parents loved me, and basically knew that my brothers and sisters loved me. Of course there were always the childish squabbles between us siblings that I’m sure played into some of those feelings, but my heart told me I was loved. This gnawing feeling or thinking that I was not accepted affected how I interacted with others, including my family. I had the mentality that everyone else was better; could do everything and anything better; they were smarter and prettier, and the list could go on. Of course as an adult I realized that most everyone has dealt with this to some degree or another.

So what was the problem? Why did I struggle so much with such things? Before I answer these questions, let’s talk about some basics, and that is that God loves you and me. No doubt about it. His love for us is NOT a problem or the problem. The problem is whether or not we want to believe and accept that truth.  The problem is with our thinking and what we base our thoughts on.

Perhaps the real question we should ask is do you know how much God loves you?  The Creator of the world, of the universe, loves you and me. He loves us so much that even before we were born He knew us and had plans for our lives.  Good plans.  Sound impossible?  Not so, for Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that God knew us “before” He formed us in the womb. God made us with our unique personality, hair color, our height, and determined our sex-either male or female-not both and He did not make a mistake. We read in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”.  Deuteronomy 23:5 tells us that God reversed the curse to a blessing because of His love for us. The curse came upon mankind because of the Fall of Man – the result of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden.  The Good News is that God is NOT mad at the world; you and I are a part of that world. John 3:16-17 reads this way:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life; for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”.

Does that sound like God is mad at anyone?  No it doesn’t. Notice too that verse seventeen tells us that Jesus DID NOT come to condemn us but to save us. That is Good News.  For me the key to this truth was to understand that when I accepted Jesus as my Savior, this God of the universe, this Creator, became my Heavenly Father.  I am His child, and He loves me just because of that Truth.

To answer the question proposed earlier of “what was the problem and why did I struggle so much with inferiority”, we must remember what Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief 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”.  I truly believe I suffered from a spirit of rejection that haunted and tormented me and downright made me unhappy.  No, I wasn’t demon possessed, although my brothers might have thought so when I was mad at them!  Hah!  Although I was shy and afraid of people, when I got upset with my brothers, well, let’s just say, it was not a pleasant atmosphere.  We must realize that the devil doesn’t give up very easily and therefore continues to attack us. But we are the children of God and we are over-comers. We win the battle(s) because we are on God’s side.

Now for the BIG ANSWER of what I discovered in the Word of God.  One  particular Scripture that helped me win the battle over inferiority is Second Timothy 1:7:  “For God has not given us (me) a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”.  Re-read that verse and meditate on it and you will discover a couple of things: (1) fear does not come from God (it is a tool of Satan to try to control us); and (2) God has given us power, love, and a sound mind. This is how I apply the truth of this verse to my life:

1. I tell myself that I don’t have to fear because fear is not from God.  Fear is a curse and not a blessing, but God has reversed the curse to a blessing (Deuteronomy 23:5)
2. I tell myself that since God has given me His power, I can be who He has created me to be, I don’t have to be afraid of people (Matthew 28:18).
3. I tell myself that I can walk in love, with my words and actions, because God is love and He lives in me. (1 John 4:4, 8 ; Galatians 2:20)
4. I tell myself that I can choose my thoughts and can think clearly. (Proverbs 23:7 and Philippians 4:8 and 2 Corinthians 10:5)

Proverbs 23:7 tells us that we are a product of how we think in our heart.  What is in our heart in abundance is what rules our thinking, our words, and our actions.  The only way to think about ourselves as God thinks about us is to renew our minds to His Way of thinking, which is the Bible.   Romans 12:2 tells us to “be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.  It is when we read the Bible and believe what God is saying to us about us that we are able to walk according to His Word.  Remember it is when we renew my mind to the Word of God that we have the boldness to dare to believe the Word of God.

Now for the practical way Father God showed me the truth of His unconditional love.  It was when my daughter was born.  I knew I would always love her. No matter what, I would always love her. As I held her in my arms that first day with those thoughts and telling her how much I loved her, I heard my Heavenly Father say to me, “That’s how I love you.” It was then that I truly understood how this God of the Universe, this wonderful Creator, could love me.  It is a choice.   Love is a choice.

God chooses to love us.  Love continues and it never runs short. God’s love for us everlasting.  Always remember that God is good, God is love, and God loves you.  Never forget that truth.