God doesn't love me because I am better than some other people.
God doesn't love me for what I've done for him, or for what I will do.
God doesn't love me for the purity of my heart, though he wants to make it pure.
God doesn't love me for the beauty of my spirit, though he desires to beautify it.
God doesn't love me because of all my knowledge about him.
God doesn't love me for my excellent theological sensibilities.
God doesn't love me because I know all the catch phrases a Christian can use.
God doesn't love me because I can recite certain passages of Scripture from memory.
God doesn't love me because I attempt to love other people in my life.
God doesn't love me because I can write something pretty about the Christian walk.
God doesn't love me for my humility, whether true or false.
God doesn't love me because I can sing about being fully devoted to him.
God loves me and, long before I was conceived, God planned to redeem me.
God loves me and His Son died for me, paid for all of my sin, and healed me of all my diseases.
God loves me and, when he looks at me, he sees me through Jesus and his righteousness, and he sees someone who is purified and cleansed and made holy.
God loves me, and he has made me a new creation, restoring the image that was distorted. He loves me and he has made me alive in Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work in me.
God loves me undeservedly, through no merit of my own, and he gives me favour and grace so that I can approach him with freedom and confidence.
Why does the Creator of the Universe and the Almighty God, who called worlds into being, lavish this gracious love on me?
My Creator, who fashioned my inmost parts, loves me because I am his child. My Redeemer, who calls me by name, wants me to remain in his love and bear much fruit. My Comforter, who lives within me, wants to guide me into the way of truth.
Am I ready to accept this love and have it fill me up to overflowing?
2 comments:
It's hard to accept that kind of love, because if it's not based on anything we did or are, then we have no way to feel that we are, to any degree, to credit for it. We want to feel like things are the result of other things that we did, and the reason for that is so that we can feel some sense of control. And that's the thing, we need that sense of control.
Well, we don't need it actually, but we really want it!
It's just like when some unavoidable catastrophe happens, like a plane crash or some terrible crime, and inevitably we'll have all over the news the advice from safety experts telling us all the little things we can do to help us avoid the same thing happening to us. Of course, none of those little things will really keep us any safer, but we do them anyways, and we like to think that they make us safer, because then we have a feeling of some control over our world.
We can say "yes, that bad thing happened to that person, but that was because they didn't do this little thing; but I am doing that little thing, therefore that bad thing won't happen to me." We like to feel like we've taken control.
So are we ready to accept that love?
It all comes down, I think, to whether or not we're able to give up the illusion of control.
r
I think you are right about my need for a sense of control being the issue with accepting God's unconditional love. I want to do something so I can say I've earned it, and I want to call the shots. Often I want recognition as well for things I've accomplished, when Christ says then we've received our reward already. And then there's the times I do something good and then follow it up with a particularly nasty attitude!
That's very true about thinking we can avoid disaster by following small rules, when really we have no control about things like that and every time we get in a car, we have more chance of getting in an accident than we do winning the lottery. Yeah we can be safer, but we can never get rid of all risk and sometimes there is nothing anyone could have done. There have been a number of times in my life that I know of, I have only survived unscathed by the grace of God!
I wonder why I hold so tight to the illusion of control, when there have been many times I have prayed that I fully surrender to God. Somehow I always seize the reigns again at some point.
Post a Comment