Scripture

Ephesians 1:4,5 NLT

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Consider

A remarkable truth about God is how he delights in loving us. It gives him great joy to walk with us, to cherish and bless us, and to guide and discipline us so that we can approach the holiness for which he formed and made us. He proves himself to be a good Father by welcoming us into his family and sealing the record of our rebellious history. He showers us with loving-kindness to convince us that we are no longer lost but found, claimed for his Name, and treasured not for anything we have said or done but because God decided, before the beginning of the world, that we would be loved.

The closest analogy we have to this divine bond of love is the ideal love of human parents. Such parents anticipate the birth of a child with excitement and joy, and when that child finally arrives, he or she receives a ready welcome and a place in the family. Of course, this analogy is only a tiny window on God’s perfect and everlasting love that, quite honestly, is beyond our ability to comprehend. Imagine a parent having the opportunity to create a child from scratch to be the perfect companion for all eternity, beautiful in the Creator’s eyes and gifted with temperament, talent, and purpose meant to exercise the child’s greatest potential and fulfill a role for which he or she is uniquely suited. Then imagine the child growing up willful and disobedient, yet the parent’s love cannot be shaken because it is rooted solely in the parent’s natural inclination to love and nurture what is most beloved.

The message of God’s love and desire for each of us is affirmed throughout Scripture and goes something like this:

My child, I have always loved you. Nothing you do can either ruin or improve my opinion of you. I delight in you exactly as you are because I AM your God and I choose to carry you close to my heart, regardless of whether you choose to return my affection.

The Bible testifies that God loves us so much that he took human form in Jesus and paved the way for our rescue from death and an eternity of separation from him. Despite the testimony of Scripture, however, we so often cannot accept God’s truth that he loves us steadfastly and thoroughly despite how we live our lives. We think there must be something more we must do, some way to pay our own debts and earn a place in God’s house. We cannot accept the Bible’s statement that the work God requires of us is to believe and accept the loving-kindness that covers all our naked wrongs and wraps us in the pure righteousness of Jesus.

Unfortunately, from a very young age we are told by the world that performance determines our worth, and only worthy persons deserve to be loved. We learn that the love we need can be withheld and used to manipulate us. We learn that love can be betrayed or misdirected in ways that shame, abuse, and destroy. Only through the Spirit’s patient counsel can we begin to appreciate the vast difference between God’s perfect and unconditional love for us and the flawed love of humans for one another. When people around us threaten to shame and reject us for failing to meet their expectations, we must learn to step away into the silence of God’s presence and let his words of abiding love soak into our souls, displacing false truths about our worth and giving us peace and security that the world cannot understand.

Pray

Good Father, your Word sings to me of your everlasting love and help for me. Yet in my human weakness and doubt, I have difficulty accepting this deep truth. Speak to me through your Spirit. Solace my soul with the certainty of my worth in you and the assurance that beyond my death a joyous eternity with you awaits me. Give me wisdom to detect the subtle lies that tell me I am worthless and boldness to dismiss them from my mind and heart.

Reflect

Psalm 144:3,4; Lamentations 3:22-24; John 6:29

Ponder

Whether in the past or present, whose voice tells me I have little value?