Imagine messing up in
the worst way possible. I mean, you’ve
really done it this time. Maybe you accidentally slept through your date at the
sockhop with your gal, or hit a baseball right through Old Man Jenkins’s
window, I don’t know. I mean, you probably didn’t do those things because you’re
in college and it’s 2014. But who knows. The point is that you’ve really messed
up. Then, imagine that you go home to your parents or start talking to your
girlfriend or whoever you’ve wronged in this situation. You start to apologize,
but halfway through you’re heartfelt apology full of remorse; they stop you and
say, “It doesn’t matter. I still love you.” Perplexed, you ask them, “But, why?”
Then, while making solid eye contact with you, they gently respond, “Because I
have to.”
Now that isn’t exactly what you want to hear in that
situation, and it definitely isn’t comforting. Never in a million years would I
seriously try to console someone with those words. Yet the guilt and shame that
we feel after sinning against God convince us that He responds to our sin in
that very way. Satan whispers in the back of our minds every time, “God is
ashamed of you. He only loves you because He is God and He has to.”
Let me tell you something right now. God doesn’t love you
because He has to. God loves you because He is
love. 1 John 4:8 gives us that proof when it reads “…God is love.” I don’t know if you’re like me and you spend time
sulking in your sin, telling yourself that God struggles to love you, but that
is a LIE. God has loved since the dawn of creation and He has not once stopped
loving you since. God’s love for you doesn’t begin when you accept a
relationship with Him. Accepting the gift of salvation and living for Christ is
a reciprocation of the love that God
has given you your entire life. Listen to the words of Isaiah in this passage:
"For
this is like the days of Noah to Me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would
not flood the earth again; so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor
will I rebuke you. “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but
My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will
not be shaken," Says the LORD who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:9-10
God is not angry with
us when we sin and He is not ashamed of us. He is nothing but love. The words
of that passage are so powerful. Even mountains and hills can fall apart, and
He will still love us. He knows we are sinners. He knows we’ve turned our backs
on Him at times. But He has NEVER turned His back on us. Right now, if you’re
like me, we are letting our sin get in the way of truly serving God. Stop
sulking and feeling sorry for yourself because you think God really has to
fight to love you. He doesn’t even break a sweat when it comes to loving us.
Let go of that fear, accept the love form God that will always be with you, and
follow Him down the path leading to His glory and your salvation.
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