Do You Really Love Me, God? | 1M Views Celebration!
Welcome to Real Life. Join me in celebrating. Recently, this blog recently reached a HUGE milestone—one million views! Can you believe it? All praise and glory to God for taking this little blog far beyond my expectations. And I am also grateful to you, my wonderful readers! Whether you’ve stopped by once, or read every post faithfully, I thank you for trusting me with a few minutes of your time.
In honor of reaching the one million mark, I am reposting my very first Real Life blog, published on September 10, 2011.
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Because I struggled to experience God’s love, I started to believe a lie: God’s love was tied to my behavior. If I was good enough, if I worked hard enough for God, I thought I could earn his love. But who can be perfectly good? It’s impossible. Thereby, I lived under a cloud of guilt. I continually felt like I wasn't doing enough. I wasn't good enough for God to love me. So, I tried harder. I volunteered, joined committees, coordinated conferences, cooked meals, sang in the choir, and more. Every morning, noon, and night held some commitment. It was exhausting! But what choice did I have? Isn’t this what God requires of me?
After years of pushing myself too hard for too long, I hit the wall. I suffered an emotional breakdown. I was a mess. I could barely function. The funny thing is that in this broken place, where I could no longer work to earn God’s love, his love broke through. I felt so deeply loved by God.
I knew he allowed my breakdown. Not to hurt me, but to heal me. God loved me too much to allow me to keep living in misery because I was believing a lie. The truth is you and I don’t need to strive to earn God’s love. Jesus does not lay a heavy burden on our shoulders. He’s the one who lifts the heavy burden off of our shoulders! His love is not like the love we experience in this world: if you’re good and loveable, I’ll love you. God’s love is not based on our performance. It’s based on who he is. God is love.[1] It’s his nature to love us.
And yes, our Father God wants us to live a good and holy life. But it’s not to earn his love and favor. It’s because he knows a good and holy life is the best, the whole-est, the most fulfilling life for us. It is the life he created us to live. Our behavior, however, does not affect his love for us. We can’t do one thing to make him love us any more (or any less). He loves us so completely; it would be impossible to add a drop to that love. Today, I know it. I feel it. I believe it.
When we live deeply rooted and grounded in God’s love, we are able to love others well. Not because of who they are (how loveable they are), but because of who we are in Christ. Our hearts are filled with his unconditional love. And that love spills over. So that his nature—to love unconditionally—becomes our nature.
God loves you! It sounds almost trite. The reality is anything but trite. Experiencing God's love changed my life!
_____
Take it further… Reread Zephaniah 3:17 above. Take a few minutes and ask God to quiet you with his love. Think about how he takes great delight in you. Imagine him rejoicing over you with singing.
If you struggle to experience God’s love, ask him to help you. I’m praying this for you:
In honor of reaching the one million mark, I am reposting my very first Real Life blog, published on September 10, 2011.
_____
“Do You Really Love Me, God?”
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.At one time, I couldn't own this verse. Intellectually, I knew it was true. God loves me. He loves everyone, right? I could easily believe God loves you. But I struggled to experience his love myself. Although the Christian life is not based on feelings or emotions, experiencing emotions like love and joy and peace do validate our faith.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
(Zephaniah 3:17 NIV)
Because I struggled to experience God’s love, I started to believe a lie: God’s love was tied to my behavior. If I was good enough, if I worked hard enough for God, I thought I could earn his love. But who can be perfectly good? It’s impossible. Thereby, I lived under a cloud of guilt. I continually felt like I wasn't doing enough. I wasn't good enough for God to love me. So, I tried harder. I volunteered, joined committees, coordinated conferences, cooked meals, sang in the choir, and more. Every morning, noon, and night held some commitment. It was exhausting! But what choice did I have? Isn’t this what God requires of me?
After years of pushing myself too hard for too long, I hit the wall. I suffered an emotional breakdown. I was a mess. I could barely function. The funny thing is that in this broken place, where I could no longer work to earn God’s love, his love broke through. I felt so deeply loved by God.
I knew he allowed my breakdown. Not to hurt me, but to heal me. God loved me too much to allow me to keep living in misery because I was believing a lie. The truth is you and I don’t need to strive to earn God’s love. Jesus does not lay a heavy burden on our shoulders. He’s the one who lifts the heavy burden off of our shoulders! His love is not like the love we experience in this world: if you’re good and loveable, I’ll love you. God’s love is not based on our performance. It’s based on who he is. God is love.[1] It’s his nature to love us.
God loves us because of who he is,
not because of who we are.
And yes, our Father God wants us to live a good and holy life. But it’s not to earn his love and favor. It’s because he knows a good and holy life is the best, the whole-est, the most fulfilling life for us. It is the life he created us to live. Our behavior, however, does not affect his love for us. We can’t do one thing to make him love us any more (or any less). He loves us so completely; it would be impossible to add a drop to that love. Today, I know it. I feel it. I believe it.
When we live deeply rooted and grounded in God’s love, we are able to love others well. Not because of who they are (how loveable they are), but because of who we are in Christ. Our hearts are filled with his unconditional love. And that love spills over. So that his nature—to love unconditionally—becomes our nature.
God loves you! It sounds almost trite. The reality is anything but trite. Experiencing God's love changed my life!
_____
Take it further… Reread Zephaniah 3:17 above. Take a few minutes and ask God to quiet you with his love. Think about how he takes great delight in you. Imagine him rejoicing over you with singing.
If you struggle to experience God’s love, ask him to help you. I’m praying this for you:
And I pray that you,
being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:17-19 emphasis mine)
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