Hear
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV).
Believe
Does God love you? Yes, He does! Why is this most fundamental truth so hard for us to fully accept?
God has made it very plain in the Bible, yet we’re not quite sure the words apply to us.
I know. I lived many years wondering each day when God’s punishment would come my way. It was a daily walk on spiritual eggshells. I knew He loved the world. I just didn’t know that He actually loved me. How could He? I was always coming up short on what I thought were his expectations.
My constant failures kept me from seeing the love of God. Maybe you've had the same experience. Here's what it did to me. I had no assurance whatsoever. I lived in fear of God's punishment, felt guilty most of the time, and was plagued by constant guilt.
But it was my own legalistic thinking that kept me from truly knowing that God loved me. God reached out to me in grace. Unfortunately, I responded for many years through law rather than by faith. Here's the good news: God doesn't love us because we perform well. He loves us because he chooses to. And nothing we can do will ever change his choice.
He demonstrated that choice to love you through Christ's death on the cross. Knowing he did this for me while I was still a sinner changed my legalistic thinking. It was not my performance that mattered. It was Christ's. And with that, I could finally see clearly that God genuinely loved me.
Live
To truly know that God loves you, look to the cross, not your performance. When you do, you can let go of that performance-based Christianity, and walk confidently in the truth that nothing will separate you from the love of God.
