Doubtless Love
On Valentine’s Day I was given a reminder that God is love. 1 John 4:16 clearly states this, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Today I was reading something that challenged me to think about whether or not I really believe that God’s love is for me, personally. It seems that I have a list of reasons why I am not worthy of His love. I sometimes doubt His love.
It seems that part of the process of sanctification, that is growing in faith and understanding of the person of God, causes us to see more and more of who we are. I am seeing more and more of who I am, the sinner that lives in my body. Sometimes it’s not all that pretty. Not that I am out there killing and robbing people but I certainly fall short of the call to be conformed to the image of Christ. (Romans 8:29)
This concerns me because I actually wonder sometimes how God could love me. Some of my thoughts and behaviors, especially those I am guilty of from prior to my salvation, are offensive to God. When I come to my senses I realize this is just bad theology. God does not reject people – even me – based on our sin. If He did there would be no one in heaven! Worse, it means that at those moments I am not understanding the sacrifice that Jesus made for me. Those sins that I have committed in the past – even the ones I committed yesterday, are forgiven, removed as far as the East is from the West when I believed in Jesus as my Savior. He has paid that penalty for me – because He is Love!
Psalm 103 puts it like this:
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
The heavens are very high over the earth! That is how huge God’s love for His people is. It’s hard to imagine that. We live in a world that accepts or rejects us based on performance. We face people in positions of authority who mistreat us, lie to us, and may even try to hurt us intentionally. God is certainly in a place of authority in the lives of believers but unlike men – He is love and He cannot be anything else. Even when He may chasten us or move us in a way or to a place that we dislike immensely, He is loving us. He is not man nor is He anything like man.
The Bible tells us that this love is for those who fear Him. I know that God wants none to perish – He loves everyone He has created. But, it appears that there is a special love that He has for those who return His love to Him. This isn’t something that can be manufactured or faked. He gives us faith and we offer our love back to Him. From this moment of salvation on that love is unconditional. No past sin or future sin will separate us from that love permanently.
When I am really hard pressed to believe this I think of King David. Jesus came from his genealogical line. David was called a “man after God’s own heart.” (1 Samuel 13:14) David committed adultery and killed a man to hide his guilt. (2 Samuel 11) He was a sinner but God did not turn away from Him or throw him into Hell as punishment. He loved him and restored him as David suffered the human consequences of his actions.
David feared God and the evidence of that was that he repented of His sin. He was genuinely sorry as he recognized that the One he had sinned against was God. (2 Samuel 12:13)
It is critical that we get our theology straight if we are to know and understand God’s love for us. He has given us His word so we can KNOW that He is love and that if we live in that love we know that He is in us. I John 1:8 – 9 challenge those of us who think our sin keeps God from loving us. They say, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
So, we can’t deceive ourselves and believe that God loves us because we have no sin. We all have sin, that’s true of everyone who has ever lived except Jesus – which is why His death could pay for our sin. But, if we confess our sin to God rather than obsessing over how much it has caused Him not to love us (false theology) he will cleanse us of “all unrighteousness”.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:9-12
If you are a child of God He loves you. Believe it. His Word is clear and His Word is true. He is love. If we have sinned, we need to confess it and get it removed as far as the East is from the West. Then we need to come to know the God who is love so well that we don’t fall into any schemes of His enemy to separate us by causing us to doubt Him or His word.
What an awesome reminder, Beth. I struggled with a faulty view of God for years which, in turn, caused me to have a faulty view of myself. I think more Christians today struggle with a faulty view of God than one might realize. True freedom is in the realization that “as far as the East is from the West our sins are forgiven” and that God’s “unfailing love for [us] will not be shaken nor [His] covenant of peace be removed.” I often remind my daughter that when I discipline her it is because I love her. I tell her that it is my job to model God’s love to her and that NOTHING she can do will cause me to love her any less. I express to her that I may be disappointed in her at times and that I may even be angry with her at times, but NOTHING will cause me to love her any less. The greatest freedom for me in Christ was in the realization that God actually delights in ME, of all people (Isaiah 62:4). The concept of God delighting in me was such a foreign concept because my own earthy father did not delight in me, nor was his love for me unfailing. When I came to realize that my earthly father does not have to be perfect — only God is perfect in His love for us — I began my journey to freedom in Christ. Due to the depth of one’s woundedness, it takes years for some of us to grasp how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for His children. I challenge those struggling today to pray that God reveal to those individuals the extravagance of His love. If more people were to realize the extravagance of God’s love, how much more would those people want to love God through their interactions with one another, through their giving and through their service. It is only through the realization of grace in one’s life that one has the capacity and the gratitude to offer the same grace to others.
Well said sister!
Beth, I receive you devotional and really like your writing. I am asking permission to occasionally use one of your devotionals (without editing) on our website. I would certainly give credit. And if you desire, I would put a link to your site.
Rev. Fred Thomas
Columbia Church of God
Columbia, PA 17512
church: 717-684-8834
parsonage: 717-684-3165
http://www.columbiachurchofgod.org
pastor cell: 717-201-9847
Thanks dear sister!
As always I love the way the Lord speaks to me through you. This was especially needed today. I am reminded that what God does in our lives is loving though it may not always produce the feelings we usually associate with being loved. It is always loving even when it doesn’t look like what we expect or want from love.
As I think about what you wrote I am reminded that not only is God always loving toward me but He is also always working on me to produce a loving heart toward those He brings in my path to love.
A good reminder and a comfort to an aching heart. I miss you.
Oh Suzi! I am so sorry your heart is aching – even then you are an encouragement to me!! I miss you too and have been praying for you to see the Lord’s hand.
I have thought many times about some of your words to me as we packed – I am so grateful for your mercy and your kindness to me.
I love you! – and can’t wait to come to Dallas – don’t worry we’ll let you get settled!