EXPLORE
GOD'S LOVE
How
can God love us when we consistently fail to follow His
Word?
Very
possibly God's love is even greater for us at the point where
we do fail to follow God's Word and way. God's love for me, for
each and all of us, is not based on my or our performance (Thanks
be to God), but on the revealed nature of the heart of God. Another
way of saying this is in a one-liner I often use: "God
does not love me because I am good, but because God is good."
In
terms of our failures, the deep awareness of God's forgiveness
is often the tap root of one's spirituality. Forgiveness breathes
new life over and over into the life of the one forgiven. God,
the Great Forgiver, embraces each of us in our darkest failures.
--The
Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey
At
a weekend spiritual retreat, I heard something that spoke directly
and deeply to this question. The topic was Grace, God's Grace — the
fact that God's love is abundant and complete. Nothing I do could
cause God to love me one bit more, or one bit less.
Grace
is what God does for me. I can't earn it. It is a gift. My
humanness is God's dwelling place. He knew I was not perfect,
so he gave me Grace. I think God wants me to say, "help me," not, "I
can do that myself." Through the Grace of God, I will always
get another chance to choose a life that is closer to the
heart and the purpose God has in mind for me.
--Robbin
I
believe God loves us but hates sin because it separates us from
Him. He loves us because we are created in His image. We are
created to be with Him. We are not complete without Him, and
in a very real way, He is not complete without us. We really
are His children. Just as a family is not whole when the parents
are apart from the children, neither He nor we are complete without
each other.
--Nick
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