Undeserved Love

“I’m forgiven because you were forsaken; I’m accepted you were condemned. I’m alive and well your Spirit is within me because you died and rose again.  Amazing love, how can it be that you my king have died for me?” “You are my King” by Newsboys 

Have you ever stopped to think about the depth of Jesus’ love for you and me?  Undeserved love, undeserved life, undeserved grace and mercy, all for us.    

To be honest, it took me some time to understand that there is nothing I can do to earn God’s love or approval.  I was used to doing “good” things and being a “good” person; I liked approval and wanted to keep earning it.  When I finally understood that God’s love for me doesn’t depend on me, on what I do or don’t do, I finally could accept His love the way He intended it.  There is so much freedom when you do this… freedom from fear, comparison, guilt… there is just love. It may sound a little corny, but what can I say, it is true! But oh, sometimes it seems easier to do, to work, to earn than to believe, doesn’t it? 

“God saved you by his special favor when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (Ephesians 2:8-9) It is interesting how our feelings can go from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes. One moment we feel so unworthy, so wrong for all the things we have done, and the next something may happen and we feel so much better than the person beside us, there is always the danger for pride to sneak in and we don’t even know where is it coming from.  I love the way God works, He knows how dangerous pride is, and how easily it is to fall into its trap.  He makes it very clear that His mercy and His grace are unearned. They are a gift, which He gives to us because He loves us.  I really like what Paul says in Romans 12:3 “I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.” We need God to keep reminding us to be humble, the more He gives us, the more humble we must be because the greater the temptation to see ourselves in a different light.  If God decides to bless us with material things we need to thank Him, as always keep Him first and ask for wisdom to manage His money; if He decides to bless us with insight into His Word and time to study it, the same way we need to thank Him, put Him first and ask Him who does He want to help or touch through what He has taught us; and the same goes if He decides to bless us with opportunities, with leadership positions, with anything God decides to give us.  You see, God has an amazing plan for our lives and He gives us everything we need to achieve it, but He doesn’t give it to us ready; He expects us to be disciplined and learn, grow, develop our gifts, to allow Him to shape us and prepare us and when the time is right, He uses us, because it is not only about us, it is about others, “Give as freely as you have received!” (Matthew 10:8)  It is not about thinking how good we are, how we have earned what we have because we have worked so hard… no!  It is God who allows us to do what we do and to have what we have, remember what Jesus said “apart from me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5)

“For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty.  He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.”  (Romans 3:25) God has made us right with Him through Jesus; just think about it, He has declared us not guilty, whatever we have done, He has forgiven us!  “He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west.”  (Psalm 103:12) Can you feel His mercy and favor?  Can you see how He wants to bless you abundantly? When we put God first, delight in His presence and recognize that everything we have or do has been given by Him, then we can truly receive His undeserved love, which is better than anything we have ever felt before.