Tell Them I Love Them

"Tell Them I Love Them"

by

Joyce Meyer

Contents

Introduction
1 God Loves You!
2 Am I Good Enough?
3 Love Is Relationship
4 Love, Trust and Faith
5 Freedom From Fear
6 Love Reaches Out
7 God's Love Will Change You
Experience A New Life
About the Author

Introduction

I believe that what people need more than anything is a revelation of God's love for them personally. I believe this to be the foundation upon which victorious living as a Christian must stand.

We do not need head knowledge concerning God's love; we need a revelation. This can only be given by the Holy Spirit and will be given as each believer meditates upon the love of God, observes the love of God in his own life and seeks that revelation through the written Word of God and also through prayer.

It is fairly easy to accept that God loves the whole world enough to send Jesus to die for the world. But it is a little more difficult to believe that if you had been the only person on the face of the earth, that God loves
you
so much that He would have sent Jesus to die for
you
and
you
alone.

After many years of being a frustrated Christian, I came to understand God's love.

God graciously revealed to me, through the Holy Spirit, His love for me personally. That single revelation has changed my entire life and my walk with Him.

I believe that what you read in this book will bring you new insight and understanding concerning the love of God. I believe it will place a new hunger in you to have this revelation for your very own. I exhort you to read the book slowly, to use it as a study aid and to meditate upon the Scriptures and the thoughts that you will find contained in the pages that follow.

This book is submitted to you in humility, knowing that I am nothing apart from Him and that whatever revelation and understanding I have of His Word, it is only by His grace.

1

God Loves You!

"For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

God wants a family, so God made us to be His kids. He does not want us to act like babies, but He wants us to act like His kids. He wants us to depend on Him, rely on Him, lean on Him, love Him and
let Him love us.
He wants us to trust Him and to reach out to Him when we have a need. He wants to have a personal relationship with
you.

Most of us take John 3:16 in too broad a scope. "Oh, yes, I know Jesus died for the world,"

but we are
not
just a group of general people down here that Jesus died for. He died for each one of us.
He died for you!

If
you
had been the only person on the face of this earth, He would have died just for
you.
He would have gone through all the suffering f
or you.

He died for
you!
God loves you so much. He loves you with an everlasting love.

One day I was driving down the road, and God spoke to my heart and said, "Joyce, you're the apple of My eye." I didn't even know that Scripture was in the Bible. The devil came in with a thought right behind that and said, "Well, isn't that a bunch of pride? Who do you think you are?" And so I thought to myself, "Oh, I shouldn't be thinking like that." It goes against our carnal thinking to realize that we
are
special, that we are gifted, that we are different. Each one of us is an individual, created by our Father to be different from the person next to us.

As I was thinking about it, God showed me a little mental picture of a lady standing in a supermarket by a large pile of apples. She looked all around and found one that was really super then reached in to get the very best one. What God was saying to me was that I was the best apple to Him.

I was the special one. That doesn't seem right, but you see, God says that to every one of us. It isn't that He is saying that you are really someone neat, and everyone else is no good. He is saying that we are all special. It is in the Word, and the Word is for every one of us.
You are the apple of God's eye.

I didn't receive what God had said to me because I felt condemned thinking such nice things about myself. About two days later I opened my Bible to Psalm 17:8, and there it was staring me in the face:
"Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide
me under the shadow of thy wings."
I said, "Oops, that was really God. I
am
the apple of God's eye." For the longest time, I felt so special every time I thought about it.

People have a craving, and a longing, and a desire in their hearts to be loved. God made us that way. Many people believe that God loves the world and that He loves Jesus, but they have a hard time believing that God loves them. Yet the Word teaches that God loves them as much as He loves Jesus. He loves
you
as much as He loves Jesus.

Let's look at John 5:20:

"For the Father loveth the Son, and
sheweth him all things that himself
doeth: and he will shew him greater
works than these, that ye may marvel."

God says here, "I'm doing all these great things through Jesus, and greater things than this through Jesus, that
you
may marvel" (author's paraphrase). Do you know that it is fine to marvel at something, to be in awe of what God is doing?

We read these Scriptures, but we often miss what God wants to do for us. He wants us to look at the great works He did through Jesus and just marvel and say, "Boy, God, that's wonderful what You did through Jesus." Then He wants you to turn in the Bible to John 14:12 where Jesus says:

"He that believeth on me, the works that I do
shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

God will do the same things through you, and greater works than these shall you do because Jesus went to His father. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that God loves you and will use you?

The Lord ministered to me one day when I was studying and said, "Joyce, I do so many things for people every day because I love them, and they don't ever see it. They don't recognize it at all. I'll give you just one example. Every day when I speak to the sun and say 'Rise,' I did it for Joyce, for Betty, for Jamie, for (fill in
your
name here)."

Stop and think about that. The sun rises in the sky every day for
you.
Yes, the sun! And we just take that for granted. We know the sun is going to come up every day, but it rises for
you.
When the rain comes in its season, it rains for
you.
When the snow comes, it comes
for you.
God loves you that much.

Deuteronomy 7:9 says,

"Know therefore that the Lord thy
God, he is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them
that love him and keep his
commandments to a thousand
generations."

Do you think that a thousand generations is long enough for you to get in on the love of God?

You see, He is an everlasting God, and you can't wear God out. A lot of us think that we have just worn God out with our failures and messes, but you can't do that. Love can't be worn out, and you can't get God not to love you. Love is not something God does. It is Who He is.

Even the dirtiest, rottenest sinner that ever walked the face of this earth and would spit in the eyes of Jesus and say, "I want nothing to do with you; I'm perfectly satisfied to go to hell"—God loves him. So how could He not love those who have been chosen and set apart for God's purpose?

You may have already said, "I receive Jesus into my heart, and I love Him." But I ask you,
how
much do you believe God loves you?

This is a very simple message to you:
God loves you.
But this is the basic foundation that God has to lay in you for you to understand everything else.

No matter what else you learn and how hard you study and seek the things of God, if you can't accept the fact that God loves you, you are not going to get very far. God's love for you is the foundation for your faith, for your freedom from sin and for your ability to step out in ministry to others without fear.
Will you receive His love for
you?

God loves
you!

2

Am I Good Enough?

"Such hope never disappoints or
deludes or shames us, for God's love
has been poured out in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit Who has been
given to us.

"While we were yet in weakness

[powerless to help ourselves], at the
fitting time Christ died for (in behalf
of) the ungodly.

"Now it is an extraordinary thing
for one to give his life even for an
upright man, though perhaps for a
noble and lovable and generous
benefactor someone might even dare to
die.

"But God shows and clearly proves
His [own] love for us by the fact that
while we were still sinners, Christ (the
Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.

"Therefore, since we are now
justified (acquitted, made righteous,
and brought into right relationship
with God) by Christ's blood, how much
more [certain is it that] we shall be
saved by Him from the indignation and
wrath of God.

"For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God through the
death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled,
that we shall be saved (daily delivered
from sin's dominion) through His [resurrection] life."

Romans 5:5-10 AMP

Many of us can believe that God loves us as long as we don't mess up. Most people don't like themselves very much, so they conclude that God can't be very impressed. Yet the Bible says,

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"

(Ps. 8:4). We are just simply God's creation, and
He loves us because He loves us.
He is love. (1 John 4.16.)

He loves you, and
you are special.
That means you are distinctive and unique. You are not supposed to be like me, and I am not supposed to be like you. And we will be miserable if we try to be like anyone else. All that does is give the devil an opportunity to tell you that you are not good enough. The thing is, with God, you don't have to be "good enough."

Did Jesus die for you because you were so great and wonderful, or did He die for you because He loved you? The Bible says that if He loved you enough to die for you, how much more then, being justified by His blood, does He now love you?

(Rom. 5:8,9.) He loves you enough to cover your little daily mistakes. He loves you enough to get you through this day in power and victory.

God showed me an example one day of how He sees our mistakes and shortcomings. Imagine a little kid, about three or four years old, who is always watching mommy do her housework. She loves mommy so much that she gets a little bucket of water and a little rag and goes to the picture window on the front porch. She scrubs the window really well then gets a few paper towels and wipes the window.

Of course, it is all streaky and smeary and soapy. And when you see what she did, you realize she used your best cleaning rag, and you would like to wring her neck. But she comes in, and in her tiny sweet voice says, "Mommy, mommy, I washed your window. I did such a good job for you. I love you mommy."

A loving mother would say, "Oh, that's a wonderful thing you did. Thanks for helping."

Then, as soon as the child was busy somewhere else, she would clean up the mess and give her some encouragement later not to do that again.

God told me that's what He does for us. He always cleans up our messes. If you are doing the best that you know how to do, that's all God expects from you. He doesn't expect you to do something you are not able to do. He can change you if you are willing to say, "You're right God, and I'm wrong. I've tried, and I can't change it."

Then He will because He knows you can't make yourself better without His help.

"For since He Whom God has sent
speaks the words of God [proclaims
God's own message], God does not give
Him His Spirit sparingly or by
measure, but boundless is the gift God
makes of His Spirit!