God’s Love Language

Somewhere I recently heard the statement that “Being believed is God’s Love Language.”

If you’re familiar with Gary Chapman’s 5 love languages, you’ll know “being believed” is not one of them. Yet this simple phrase has resonated so deeply within me that it has changed how I think and see my circumstances.

At first blush, there are lots of ways we can love God:

• Obedience
• Worship/Praise
• Prayer/Communion
• Others?

But let’s look at what is behind each of these:

• Obedience: Why do we obey God? Isn’t the root of obedience because we believe He is who He says He is and that we are who He says we are? I don’t obey my 4-year-old when he tells me what to do and threatens me with a spanking because I know it’s an idle threat.
• Worship/Praise: Why do we worship or praise God? Isn’t it because we know who He is? His character and His goodness? Sometimes we worship from a place of joy and gratitude, sometimes we worship in spite of our circumstance. We worship because we believe He is who He says He is.
• Prayer/Communion: If we don’t trust God is who He says He is, why would we pray?

I think there’s something to this taking God at His word.

But what does it mean to believe?

• Genesis 15:1-6: And he (God) brought him (Abraham) outside and said “Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him “So shall your offspring be.” [6] And he believed the LORD and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Now let’s fast-forward to Genesis 22:1-3:

[1] After these things God tested Abraham and said to him “Abraham!” And he said “Here I am.” [2] He said “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” [3] So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. … Verse [9] When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. [10] Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. [11] But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said “Here I am.” [12] He said “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Here belief has some teeth to it. There was action because of belief – very costly action. So faith is not just mental adherence to an idea, it is behavioral adherence as well. This reminds me of James 2:26 which states, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.”

More verses on believing God:

• Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
• Mark 1:15: “The time has come,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
• John 6:29: Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
• Hebrews 11:1-6: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. And without faith it is impossible to please God…”

I have decided to take God at His word.

• Even if I don’t understand it.
• Even when my head doesn’t believe it.
• Even when my circumstances don’t look like it.

I declare to myself, my mind, my emotions that God IS who HE says He is. I WILL believe the things He says and the promises He makes.

I’d like to end this lesson by reading aloud who God says He is, and as you read these, I encourage you to listen and determine in your heart to receive it as truth and to stand on it – that is, to take Him at His Word.

What God says about Himself

Creation and Sovereignty

• Genesis 1:1: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
• Proverbs 3:19: The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.
• Acts 17:24: The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
• Jeremiah 32:17: Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.
• Isaiah 44:24: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb: “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone.”

God’s Nature and Essence

• Exodus 3:14: [14] God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
• John 4:24: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
• 1 John 1:5: This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
• Revelation 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Omnipresence and Omniscience

• Psalm 139:7-8: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
• Proverbs 15:3: The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good.
• Hebrews 4:13: And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Uniqueness and Incomparability

• 1 Samuel 2:2 There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God

• Isaiah 43:10b-11 You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. 11″I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.

• Isaiah 55:8–9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (ESV)

God’s Character and Attributes

• Exodus 34:6 “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.

• Psalm 33:4-5 For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD

• Psalm 111:3-4 Splendid and majestic is His work, And His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonders to be remembered; The LORD is gracious and compassionate

• 1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God’s Power and Capability

• Luke 1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

• Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”