A Love we cannot Earn

 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him"

As people, we have very interesting ways of taking worldly wisdom or behavior, and infusing God into it without knowing. We constantly say we know that the love of God is free and comes to us without us asking, yet we have made a habit of telling others and ourselves that we either have to work to earn and be worthy of  God’s love or that we have to work to maintain it as if God could ever take his love from us.

We boldly recite the scripture that says “what can separate us from the love of God” but go on to enforce ideas that there are things one can face or do that cause God to take his love away from them. We constantly, albeit unintentionally, attempt to limit God by our understanding from the world. There is never a time where God is not loving anyone of all of us on earth, our very existence speaks to the facts that we are chosen by God and held by his love. We cannot say boldly that there is no trace of darkness in God, as to mean that he is always good and then tell people that they are going through certain things because they have “fallen short” in whatever way that is meant when said. We cannot say God is unchanging but also say he punishes people because they erred. A God who entreats us to forgive others especially when they’ve unjustly wronged us and pray for those who are unkind to us is a God that loves in all times for no reason, but simply because he is love and love must always love.

We cannot speak of a God who nothing was made that was made without him. Who existed before the beginning of creation and then think that there is anything we can give to him in action or words that wasn’t first supplied by him. If anything, our shortcomings expose us to the fact that we are not conscious or have not fully known the truth of how loved we are and how much the Father is rooting for us which is why he shows us grace and mercy.

And NO, this is not an excuse for people to act unkind or unruly, but the fact that even when they do, it only speaks to the fact that there are areas of their life that need to awaken to the love of God. The love of God may not always come like a soft tap on the back, it may be expressed at things that feel discomforting in the moment as they bring us to the reality of how unwholesome certain parts of the lives we live are but it always comes because it is always present.

You therefore cannot earn a love that is already yours by design, you must only awaken to it, fall deeper and allow it to reveal the truth of who you are to you. Only then will we begin to be as we were truly made to be. Not bound by law and consequences but love. From God and in God, In us and to others.