Beloved

When you’re joyful, peaceful, kind, humble, purposeful, obedient, and honorable, you are loved.

But when you’re depressed, anxious, bitter, self-righteous, self-piteous, self-centered, and have really screwed up . . . you are loved.

It’s not about performing to earn God’s love. It’s simply about responding to it.

There’s nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you can do to diminish his love for you, either. He loves you because he loves you. He loves you because he is love itself, and nothing changes that. Jesus has declared his love for you on the cross, and continues to demonstrate it to you through his Spirit.

You can try to ignore his love. You can judge your failures and sentence yourself to live in a spiritual prison. You can wallow there in self-pity as long as you want, disengaged from faith, hope, and that love. But please don’t give in to believing it’s his will. It’s never his desire to reject you from his presence. In fact, if you’ve asked Jesus into your life, you’re never alone, and never unloved.

So . . . if you can accept that God loves you all the time, you can also accept his invitation for your thoughts and emotions to be filled with love right now. You can choose to see yourself in the love he has for you, and to speak to others with the love he has for them. In the constant overflow of his love, you can displace every negative voice and deal with your circumstances confidently. You can let his love redefine your mindset, relationships, and purpose in life. You can stop living in reaction to your old anxious ways of thinking and the enemy’s lies, and begin living in response to your Father’s plans of peace and hope (Jer. 29:11).

“I’ll never abandon or give up on you” (Hebrews 13:5b).

“He is never far from any one of you! For in him we live, move, and have our very being” (Acts 17:27b, 28a).