Day 33 "God loves me, He loves me not."

Ever feel like you current circumstances define how well you are faring with God? When things are going well around you, you feel like God is blessing you and that you must be doing things right? On the other hand, when things aren't going so well for you, you feel like God is chastising you or withholding his blessings because you haven't been living up to his standards or what he wants of you? If so, now you feel that it is up to you to try harder and to do it better the next time? He loves me. He loves me not. Always a guessing game, isn't it, when we perceive God's affection for us based on our performance?

It is tiresome and worrisome enough to be preoccupied with how others love and accept us or how we are striving to perform at our jobs, our marriages, and raising our children. To add another layer of added stress by worrying about how God is judging us or what he cares about us at any given moment in time can make living this life almost unbearable and daunting, full of increasing anxiety. Where is the joy and peace in that?

Are you ready for some good news? Are you ready for some real joy and peace in your life? God's love for each of us is unconditional- not subject to any conditions! Let that soak in for awhile and marinate your mind and soul. If God's love is not merited by our conditional actions, then God is not subjected to what we do or don't do- positively or negatively. We cannot earn any more of God's love nor can we lose any of it by what we do. Otherwise, God's love would be conditional. And if God's love for us is unconditional, then any attempt to try and manipulated God's affection for us by pulling on his strings like a puppeteer is futile and pointless. We are free to love and respond to God, not because we have to, but because we want to- because he first loved us.

"Perfect love casts out all fear." 1 John 4:18

"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

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 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

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Ephesians 5:1-2

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in

his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 1:4-5

"But because of great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ

even when we were dead in our transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in

Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches

of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith-and not from yourselves, it is a

gift of God- not by works, so that on one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law (by what

we do or don't do)." Romans 3:28

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the

kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1;13

Only when we come to an understanding that God did it all for us in bringing us back into a relationship with him can our mindset become free from our performing for God and be set free from fear. We don't seek righteousness to attain a better relationship with God. We seek righteousness out of knowing that our relationship with God is already secured and out of an understanding and belief rooted in God's love that his ways are better than our ways. At the heart of it all, love rules the roost. And God loves us, not because we are deserving, but because of who God is.

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If you are struggling with the concept of needing to perform for God or experience any fear when you think of God, may I encourage you to get to know God better and how he loves you. When we sense our lack of trust, we are basically saying that we do not believe that someone has our best interest at heart. When you come to realize God's love for you, your trust will follow.

"He who does not love me will not obey my teaching." John 14:24

You don't have to pick the petals of a flower to determine whether God loves you or not. Rest assured, be at peace, to know that God still loves you in spite of your love for God.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Be at peace resting in his love. Until tomorrow...