“How could God truly love me? Why? What would His motive be? And if this is true that He wants to be good to me, why don’t I see it? We feel that because we see Him bless other people that surely He is holding out on me. I’m not good enough. I’m damaged goods. I can’t even walk right, so how could God be pleased with me, let alone really want to know me.
Does this sound familiar? Even the greatest Christian ministers from time to time struggle with being accepted by God. We question how God can truly love us with no strings attached. Shouldn’t we have to do something?” (The Embrace of Grace, page 17)
Why is it so hard for us to understand that God’s love for us is free? Even for people who love God and have known the Lord for much of their lives still struggle believing that He simply loves us.
Granted, there are things God calls for us to do to live according to his will and bring his pleasure, but this is not how we gain God’s love. He has chosen to set his love upon us.
“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV
Who has told us that we must perform for God’s love?
Religion itself can be hard on our understanding of God’s love. Strange isn’t it? But the “rules” of religion can get in our way! Somewhere we learn that to be spiritual means that we have to do this or that just right, that we must perform perfectly or we do not deserve God’s love.
However, it is out of this great understanding of God’s free gift of love that we can ever begin to follow his desires for our lives and live out his plan in the earth. So the enemy delights in using this weapon against the people of God, paralyzing us, and keeping us from fulfilling God’s plan for our lives, from the beginning. Why? Because we don’t really believe He could love us just the way we are.
What do you think? What lies have you believed that is keeping you from believing that His love is free?
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