God Is for You — So Why Are You Still Providing for Yourself? 

Have you ever prayed and secretly wondered if God was the problem? Not out loud — but somewhere in the back of your mind, you weren't sure if He was for you or against you?

That's not a prayer problem. That's a love problem. And it's more common than most people in the Church want to admit.

We've been digging into what it means to know and believe the love of God — not just know about it, but actually believe it. And I want to keep building on this because the stakes are high. Not believing the love God has for you is dangerous, and it shows up in ways you might not expect.

I didn't stop sinning through rules — I stopped through love.

Let me be honest with you. There were a lot of sins in my life that I didn't quit through willpower, through discipline, or through a list of "thou shalt nots." Every time I swore I was done, I seemed to do it three times before dark. I'd get more spiritual about it and declare it in Jesus' name — and somehow do it five times that day.

But when I began to discover how much God loved me, something shifted. Sin became a love choice. Did I want this more than I wanted Him? Not because He'd withdraw from me or hold it against me — but because if He really loved me the way the Word says He does, why would I want to do anything to hurt Him by choosing sin?

Once it became a love choice, I was stronger than I'd ever been.

And then I started asking a deeper question: why did these things appeal to me in the first place? The answer was always the same. I believed I had to provide for myself. I didn't trust that God loved me enough to cover me, protect me, provide for me.

Tithing in sin — and other things you didn't know you were doing wrong.

Here's something that might surprise you. The Word says anything that is not of faith is sin. I want you to sit with that for a moment.

When I first started tithing, I wasn't tithing in faith. I was tithing in fear. People had told me, "God's going to get His money somehow — in doctor bills, repair bills — you better bring it to Him first." So I brought my tithe. Out of fear of being destroyed.

I was doing the right thing, in complete sin. No faith in it. No confidence in God's love. Just dread. Anything not of faith is sin — and that includes doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

Have you ever prayed without any faith in it at all? I have. It happens when you don't truly believe God is in love with you and has already blessed you. You're not honoring Him — you're just managing your fear.

And here's a question worth sitting with: why do you trust Visa and Mastercard more than you trust Jesus? Why does a credit card feel more certain than God's provision? Because deep down, you don't believe He loves you enough to come through — so you take care of it yourself. That's a problem.

The serpent's strategy was to make God look like the enemy.

Go back to the Garden. Genesis 3. The enemy didn't come at Adam and Eve with a frontal assault. He came with a question about God's character:

"Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'" … "You shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:1, 4–5 (NKJV)

Think about this. How do you tempt two perfect people who have everything? You can't lure them with money — they own the planet. You can't offer them fame — they're the only people on it. There's nothing to dangle.

So the enemy did the only thing he could. He convinced them that God was withholding something good from them. That God was jealous. That God was not actually for them — and they needed to protect themselves, even from Him.

That is the oldest lie in existence. And it still works the same way today.

They already had everything the enemy said God was keeping from them.

Here's what makes this temptation so devastating: it was built entirely on a lie. Think about what the serpent promised — that they would be like God and know good and evil.

But wait. What did God say when He created them? "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." They were already like Him. That promise was already fulfilled.

And the knowledge of good? Every single thing God created, He looked at and called good. They were surrounded by good. They already had it.

So what did they actually gain by reaching out and taking the fruit? The knowledge of evil. That is all they got. Something the Father never wanted them to have. He wasn't withholding — He was protecting.

People say you can't understand good without knowing evil. That's not true. You can go from good to better to best — and with God it just keeps getting better. Your first day in Heaven will be your worst day there, because it only gets more glorious from there. And on the other side, the first day in Hell will be the best day there — and it only gets worse.

God wasn't holding out on them. He was loving them. And they couldn't see it.

What if they had believed He loved them?

Here's what Adam and Eve could have said — and what we can say — when the enemy comes with his lies:

"What are you talking about? God doesn't want us to be like Him? Look around. Everything we can see, feel, and touch was freely given to us by our Father. He's been so good to us. And you're trying to tell me He's withholding from me?"

"Let me tell you something. He is so in love with me that if He didn't give it to me, I must not need it. Because if it was a blessing, He would have already provided it. So no — I don't want your tree. And I don't believe you when you say God is withholding from me. God is in love with me. My Father would never withhold anything from me. You are a liar."

Who would have fixed everything, if they had just believed: God is so in love with me, He would never withhold anything from me.

That's the answer. Not more willpower. Not more religion. A settled, unshakeable belief in the love God has for you.

Not believing His love puts you in an adversarial relationship with God.

Here's the fourth danger of not believing God's love, and this one will show up in your prayer life if you'll be honest with yourself.

When you pray, is God your adversary? I know you might want to give me the religious answer — "of course not." But let me ask it differently. Do you go into His presence trying to make Him feel sorry for you?

"Let me tell you how bad I am. Let me cry some tears so You can see how serious this is. Lord, I need to impress upon You how desperate my situation is."

If that's how you pray, then God is your adversary in your own mind. You don't believe He just loves you and would simply help you. So you're trying to manipulate His feelings to get Him to move.

Do you fast to try to make God do something? Do you stay up all night crying out to get Him to finally act? I believe in fasting. I fast. But if you're doing it to get God to move — as if He's been reluctant and you need to wear Him down — He's your adversary. And that is dangerous.

If you're sitting in prayer trying to convince God — who gave everything for you — to help you, you have not yet truly believed how much He loves you.

The way out is believing He's not your problem.

The next time you're tempted to sin, don't just run from it. Look at it. Ask yourself: what am I trying to get? What do I believe God won't provide?

Because I promise you — whatever you're reaching for outside of His way, there's a version of it He can give you clean, whole, and without the grief that comes when you take it yourself.

He is not withholding from you. He is not jealous of you. He is not running a test on you. He is not your adversary.

He is the one who gave everything for you. And He is more willing to help you than you are willing to ask.

Start feeding on this truth every day. Let it get into your bones until the enemy's lies don't have anywhere to land. Because when you truly believe the love God has for you, everything changes — your prayer life, your choices, the way you see every situation you face.

God is not your problem. He never was. Grab a hold of that — and don't let it go.

Fight To Win.