Believe & Have Faith
I struggle often with the idea that God actually loves me.
My whole life, as well as the culture we live in, has taught me that performance is the only way to truly earn anything. If we just work hard enough, we can please others. If we work and perform well, we can get whatever we want out of life.
It's not just the material things that I've learned to work for. When it comes to love, I believe that I have to work for that, too.
Someone's love towards me has to be based solely on how well I can satisfy them or make them happy. Whether that's making sure to cook the right meals or dress/look a certain way - if I mess up, that love is gone. It's all conditional: conditional on my performance and their satisfaction.
This is so easy to see in society today. Divorce runs rampant because people's love is conditional upon their spouse meeting all of their needs and making them 'happy.' If that spouse lets them down or doesn't meet their standard, then they simply leave. They move on to someone else who they think is willing to meet their needs.
It's easy to see this in other people - and it's so easy to have it just break your heart. Why can't people understand that isn't love? Love isn't some simple feeling that comes and goes based on how you feel one day vs. another (or one, five, ten years down the road...).
Love is much more than a feeling - it's hard, hard work. It's the total surrender of who you are, giving up any selfish desires in your heart, and finding a way to serve the other person in humility. That's easy to say when we look at others, especially in regards to marriages and divorce that's so prevalent in our society.
Yet how often do we apply it to our relationship with the Lord? If you truly sat down at looked at your relationship with Him, do you think you are accepting His love freely, or are you working to keep it and earn it?
Without a doubt, I work to keep it. I tell myself I just need to pray harder, or confess some unknown sin, or memorize one more verse - if I do all this, God will surely be happy and satisfied in me. If I can just make Him happy, then I don't have to worry about His love leaving me.
I was so lovingly reminded this week that that isn't the gospel. It's 100% contrary to the gospel in fact.
John 3:16 tells us that God SO loved the world, that He gave His only son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. Galatians 2:20 says that the life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Those verses have a whole lot of love and giving on God's side. The only thing I see us doing is believing, and having faith.
Not work hard. Do more. Earn it. Make Him happy. And if you don't, God's leaving.
If it was based on our performance, none of us would be worthy of God! The Bible tells us that we are all dead in our trespasses (Eph 2:1). We all fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23) - there is no way we can possibly work hard enough to earn His love at all.
Praise the Lord that He doesn't leave us there! He doesn't leave us alone, struggling against a weight that we simply cannot carry. He loved us DESPITE us and yearned for a relationship with us. Knowing we had to be reconciled to Him, he sent His son to die on an old, rugged cross so that we might be reconciled to Him for eternity - not just one day. Not just one moment. Not just when we are being 'good.' Not just when we are making Him 'happy.'
We are reconciled forever and are loved by our Heavenly Father no matter what (John 10:29).
The real me.
The me no one sees.
The me that constantly lets Him down.
The me whose past doesn't deserve love.
The me whose heart doesn't really love myself most of the time if I'm honest.
The me who thinks I can work hard enough to say I earned His love.
If we fail though, it means we don't deserve it at all.
It's not just the material things that I've learned to work for. When it comes to love, I believe that I have to work for that, too.
Someone's love towards me has to be based solely on how well I can satisfy them or make them happy. Whether that's making sure to cook the right meals or dress/look a certain way - if I mess up, that love is gone. It's all conditional: conditional on my performance and their satisfaction.
This is so easy to see in society today. Divorce runs rampant because people's love is conditional upon their spouse meeting all of their needs and making them 'happy.' If that spouse lets them down or doesn't meet their standard, then they simply leave. They move on to someone else who they think is willing to meet their needs.
It's easy to see this in other people - and it's so easy to have it just break your heart. Why can't people understand that isn't love? Love isn't some simple feeling that comes and goes based on how you feel one day vs. another (or one, five, ten years down the road...).
Love is much more than a feeling - it's hard, hard work. It's the total surrender of who you are, giving up any selfish desires in your heart, and finding a way to serve the other person in humility. That's easy to say when we look at others, especially in regards to marriages and divorce that's so prevalent in our society.
Yet how often do we apply it to our relationship with the Lord? If you truly sat down at looked at your relationship with Him, do you think you are accepting His love freely, or are you working to keep it and earn it?
Without a doubt, I work to keep it. I tell myself I just need to pray harder, or confess some unknown sin, or memorize one more verse - if I do all this, God will surely be happy and satisfied in me. If I can just make Him happy, then I don't have to worry about His love leaving me.
I was so lovingly reminded this week that that isn't the gospel. It's 100% contrary to the gospel in fact.
John 3:16 tells us that God SO loved the world, that He gave His only son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. Galatians 2:20 says that the life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Those verses have a whole lot of love and giving on God's side. The only thing I see us doing is believing, and having faith.
Not work hard. Do more. Earn it. Make Him happy. And if you don't, God's leaving.
It' simply: Believe. Have Faith.
If it was based on our performance, none of us would be worthy of God! The Bible tells us that we are all dead in our trespasses (Eph 2:1). We all fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23) - there is no way we can possibly work hard enough to earn His love at all.
Praise the Lord that He doesn't leave us there! He doesn't leave us alone, struggling against a weight that we simply cannot carry. He loved us DESPITE us and yearned for a relationship with us. Knowing we had to be reconciled to Him, he sent His son to die on an old, rugged cross so that we might be reconciled to Him for eternity - not just one day. Not just one moment. Not just when we are being 'good.' Not just when we are making Him 'happy.'
We are reconciled forever and are loved by our Heavenly Father no matter what (John 10:29).
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