For
the first 10 years of my walk with the Lord, I could not believe that God could
love me. I felt flawed, damaged and tolerated at best. I believed Satan's lie
that I was unlovable.
I
thought I had to earn love from God and others. I used my good works to
accomplish this (Galatians 3:1-3). I knew that salvation is by grace through
faith (Ephesians 2:8), but my thinking was pathetically impaired.
The
Lord God of all creation is always compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and
abounding in love, mercy, grace and kindness (Exodus 34:6). He is eternal, and
His love is without end (1 John 3:1-24).
I
memorized many of the Bible verses about God's unconditional love, but I still did
not believe that they applied to me. Every day, I strove to earn God's love by
my service for Him (Ephesians 2:9-10); yet, I felt that I could never be good
enough to earn His love.
One
day God revealed to me that my thoughts were true, and that there was no way
that I would ever be good enough to deserve His love; however, He made it clear
that He already loved me, even when I was still lost in sin (Romans 5:8).
Also,
He still loved me even when I chose to do my own thing, rather than to walk in
His will for me. Unconditional love means just that…there are no conditions.
God does request that if we love Him, we keep His commandments (John 14-15).
However, this is not a prerequisite for Him to love us.
When
I faced the truth that no one would ever be good enough to earn God's love,
freedom and joy drenched my soul. This
diffused the pressure that I felt to work for my status in God's family and
Kingdom.
Once
I relaxed, my soul filled with peace, while tears of gratitude coursed down my
face. I entered God's rest (Hebrews 4:3,10), and I started to view life from
God's perspective.
He
gave me His heart, and He filled me to overflowing with all of His fullness, as
well as with the richest measure of His presence (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified
Version). God loves all of His children with this same eternal love.
Believe
it, my sister and brother, YOU ARE LOVED (John 3:16).
Prayer:
Father
God, You are not at all impressed with our appearance, productivity or
accomplishments. You do not require that we perfect our humanness, because You
prefer that we allow You to transform our life into the mind and nature of
Christ. You know our every thought, word and deed (Psalm 139:1-4; Hebrews
4:13); however, You love us anyway, because we are Yours.
You
purchased us with the blood of Christ - Your most valued possession. You will
never, ever take back Your saving grace that brought us to redemption in
Christ. Regardless of our loss of stamina, beauty, talents, memory,
productivity, mental and physical abilities, etc., You will always love us. You
even look forward to us joining You in eternity, when we come to the end of our
life on this earth (Psalm 116:15).
Thought
for the Day:
God
loves us unconditionally, and He tells us this so many times in His Word; He
proves it to us so often during our lifetime, but we will not notice how much He
loves us unless we take the time to perceive His little hugs throughout the day.
-
Psalm 52:8; Romans 8:35-39; Ephesians 2:4-5; 1 John 4:10,16
