How do you come to really believe that God loves you with all He has and is? You believe it intellectually. You’ve seen it in the Gospel. But how do you get to a point of functionally believing something as big as that? How could the God of the Universe possibly love you, specifically? How could He love you even though He allows suffering?
One way to believe the truth at your core is to chew on that truth until it melts your heart.
What does it mean to chew on a truth?
Chewing on a truth means that you are pondering or meditating on a truth. It can mean that you are pulling out the logical implications of a truth. Or it could mean you are interacting with a truth in such a way that you see how your life will be different if you wholeheartedly believed it. I like to chew by taking a truth and asking questions around it. For example,
If I really believed that God loved me with all He has and is:
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How would that have changed how I lived out yesterday?
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How will that change how I conduct this next business meeting?
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How would that impact the way I handle temptations to sin?
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How would that impact my relationship with my spouse? Children? Team? Friends?
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How will that impact how I lead? Develop my team? Pursue potential clients? Serve existing clients?
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How would I spend my time? Money? Other resources?
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How would it change my self-care habits? Sleep? Eating? Exercising? Rest?
You need to answer these kinds of questions with as much detail as possible, mixing facts with what you would feel about those facts until it becomes real.
Let me give an example by answering the second question above.
If I really believed God loved me with all He has and is, how would that change how I conduct this next business meeting?
I would love my client, with boundaries and with a great desire to see them grow and fulfill the call God gave them. I would be on a mission, alert, engaged, seeing them as a child of God who is built to advance the Kingdom of God in a specific way that only they can do. I would listen well, get curious, and ask questions. I would encourage them to move into action. I would stay connected to God as well. I would ask the Holy Spirit to lead the discussion and move things in the direction that glorifies Him. I would be free. I would not have to draw attention to or focus on myself, my needs, or my performance. I would be relaxed.
As you can see, this stream of consciousness would generate an ideal scenario that is true if I believe that God loves me with all He has and is. The more that I write, the more I am moved in the direction of that ideal. The more often I ask this question of myself and the more details I pull out of that question, the more I come to believe the truth.
Chew On This:
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What would be different about how you see God if you really knew that He loved you with all He has and is?
The 1st Principle Leadership brand was created to equip Christian heads of companies to live in congruence with Christ and grow thriving businesses that truly glorify Him while functionally putting Christ and their families ahead of the business.
*This blog is an amalgamation of a few different clients. No client is being singled out.
