“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)
Have you ever believed that God loves you, yet felt abandoned? Have you prayed for peace while your heart remained crowded with fear? Have you known the right words about God’s love but struggled to live as though those words were actually true? Why can the mind confess what the heart still refuses to feel?
Many of us know this tension. We read Scripture, attend church, listen to biblical teaching, and sincerely confess that God is good. Yet one painful memory, one betrayal, one season of silence, or one accusation from the enemy can make us feel spiritually empty. The truth remains, but our perception seems to stand behind a locked door.
Pastor Anthony Joseph Massotti, Th.M., addressed this struggle in his original 1999 Pastor’s Corner archive, “Living Like You Are Loved”. His reflection begins with a simple prayer: “Lord, fill me with Your Love.”
The answer came with startling clarity:
“GOD IS LOVE. YOU ARE FILLED WITH GOD. LOVE IS IN YOU!”
The truth is not always the problem. Sometimes the problem is that we are living beneath the reality God has already declared.
When We Pray for What God Has Already Given
There are prayers we pray because we lack something. There are also prayers we pray because we have not yet recognized what God has already supplied.
In the archive, Pastor Anthony describes crying out for God’s love while sitting at work. He knew his prayer was sincere, but he also knew the answer was already established: God is love, and God’s presence is not distant from His people. Scripture tells us that believers are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), that God has given power from on high (Luke 24:49), and that an anointing teaches truth (1 John 2:27).
This does not mean that every believer will always feel strong, peaceful, or emotionally secure. It means that our feelings are not the final authority.
Either we allow our changing emotions to interpret God’s Word, or we allow God’s Word to reinterpret our emotions. Either we say, “I feel forgotten, therefore I must be forgotten,” or we bring that feeling beneath the unchanging promise of God: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).
The enemy would gladly turn a temporary feeling into a permanent identity. He whispers, “You are empty. You are unwanted. You are too damaged to be loved.” But the Word of God speaks with greater authority. The question is not whether God has spoken. The question is whether our hearts have learned to live in agreement with what He has said.
The Gap Between the Soul and the Spirit
The 1999 archive describes a gap between the soul and the spirit “in the realm of perception.” This is a valuable distinction.
Your mind may understand a truth while your soul remains wounded by an opposing experience. You may know that God forgives, yet still feel condemned. You may know that God is near, yet still feel alone. You may know that you are loved, yet interpret every hardship as evidence of rejection.
This is not merely a battle of information. It is a matter of the heart.
In Scripture, the heart is more than the seat of emotion. The biblical concept includes the inner person: thought, desire, will, understanding, and affection. The heart is where truth becomes personal. It is possible to repeat a doctrine with the lips while resisting its comfort in the hidden places of the soul.
That is why spiritual growth is not simply the accumulation of facts. Deepening faith requires the Word to travel from the page into the wounds, fears, memories, and decisions that shape our daily lives. We do not need less truth; we need the truth to become living reality within us.
“Lord, Fill Me With…”
What should we do when we know the truth but do not feel its power?
Cry out like a child.
A child does not always approach a parent with a carefully organized theological explanation. A child simply says, “Help me.” “Hold me.” “Feed me.” “Stay with me.” The prayer is direct because the need is real.
Pastor Anthony’s invitation is equally simple: “Lord, fill me with…” Then place the need in the empty space.
“Lord, fill me with peace.”
“Lord, fill me with courage.”
“Lord, fill me with forgiveness.”
“Lord, fill me with the assurance of Your love.”
“Lord, fill me with wisdom for this decision.”
There is no shame in returning to simple prayers. In fact, simplicity can be an expression of trust. We are not impressing God with elaborate language. We are opening the wounded vase of our heart and asking Him to remove the dirt that has gathered there.
Scripture commands us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This does not require us to speak audibly every moment. It means that prayer becomes the posture of our lives. We keep returning to God, not because He is reluctant to answer, but because our souls continually need to remember where their help comes from.
Who can separate us from the love of God? Not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword (Romans 8:35-39). Not yesterday’s failure. Not today’s confusion. Not tomorrow’s uncertainty. The love of God is not held together by the strength of your feelings. It is secured by the faithfulness of God.
Let God Touch the Flesh Barrier
The archive speaks of God breaking down the “flesh barrier” and softening the scars on the heart. This language reaches into a place many of us understand.
The flesh barrier may be pride, self-protection, resentment, shame, unbelief, or the determination to remain in control. Sometimes we build defenses because we have been hurt. A wall may have protected us in one season, but later become a prison. The scar that once testified, “I survived,” begins to insist, “I can never trust again.”
God does not expose our wounds to humiliate us. He brings them into His Light so they can be healed.
Yet healing can feel frightening. If we have built our identity around rejection, receiving love may require us to release the identity we know. If we have learned to expect abandonment, believing that God remains may challenge the entire emotional structure of our lives.
I have prayed in such moments, “Lord, I believe what Your Word says. Help my heart receive what my mind already knows.” That is not a prayer of failure. It is a prayer of surrender.
We can say, “Lord, I know You love me, but I do not feel loved today.” God is not threatened by honest prayer. We do not need to disguise our pain before the One who searches the heart. Bring Him the fear. Bring Him the anger. Bring Him the numbness. Bring Him the scar tissue.
Then remain before Him.
Living From Love, Not Merely Talking About It
To live like you are loved is not to deny suffering. It is to stop allowing suffering to define the character of God.
A person who knows they are loved can repent without collapsing into despair. They can receive correction without assuming rejection. They can forgive without pretending the wound never happened. They can serve without performing for approval. They can rest without believing that their worth depends on constant productivity.
There is an important distinction between saying, “I’m sorry,” and saying, “Please forgive me.” “I’m sorry” may express regret over an outcome. “Please forgive me” acknowledges responsibility and seeks restored relationship. In the same way, it is one thing to say, “God loves people.” It is another to pray, “Lord, help me receive Your love personally, and teach me to live as one who belongs to You.”
The first statement may remain general. The second opens the heart.
This is part of a faithful Christian walk with Christ. Growing in faith is not pretending that the gap does not exist. It is repeatedly inviting God to close it. Through prayer, Scripture, repentance, worship, wise fellowship, and sound biblical teaching, the soul learns to recognize what the spirit has already received.
For additional spiritual growth resources, explore the ministry’s collection of written teachings and Pastor’s Corners. You may also find encouragement in “Perfect Love That Casts Out Fear” and practical guidance in “5 Steps to Build a Consistent Christian Walk and Deepen Your Bible Study”.
A Prayer for the Gap
Lord, I believe Your Word, but I confess that my heart does not always feel what I believe. Where fear has built a wall, break it down. Where betrayal has hardened me, soften me. Where shame has covered me like ashes, let the Light of God shine again.
Fill me with Your love, not because You are empty toward me, but because I am often unaware of the fullness You have already given. Teach my soul to recognize Your presence. Teach my heart to rest in Your promises. Help me live today as one who is truly loved.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
The answer is not that God must become more loving. God is love. The answer is that we must allow Him to heal our perception and bring our lives into agreement with His truth.
Cry out.
Pray without ceasing.
Open the wounded places.
Reject the enemy’s accusations.
Receive the love God has already declared.
Live like you are loved.
Based on “Living Like You Are Loved,” an original Pastor’s Corner archive piece by Pastor Anthony Joseph Massotti, Th.M., copyright © Anthony J. Massotti, Th.M., 11/14/99.
