You can't love until you are loved.

Living loved as a believer in Jesus is the starting point for loving others as Jesus asks us to. The simple reality is that you cannot love until you are loved. It means that you understand how solid God's love is for you. No one ever has loved you or ever will love you as much as God our Father does. You stand firm in his grace. That means what you do or don't do will not change his love for you. There is nothing you can do that will make him love you any more or any less. Are you concerned that God will give up on you? You need not be. Are you worried that he will at some point have his fill of you and become disillusioned with you? How could he? He never had any illusions about you in the first place. His love is perfect. He knew what he was getting into. You have a father who loves you more than anyone could ever love you. You've never been loved by anyone like this. 

Living loved also means that God isn't playing this guilt-trip motivation game with you. He doesn't use guilt to shame you into obedience and growth. There is no condemnation to anyone who is in Christ. That's what the New Testament writer showed us in his letter to the Romans, chapter eight. Think about it? If we live in the foundation of his unwavering love and unfathomable grace, and we certainly do, we are walking in the Spirit. We no longer have to live by our fleshly desires and motivations. Guilt, shame, and condemnation are not on God's agenda for us. Those things do not help us live in God's life. He has removed them by the wonderful Cross event. In Jesus, there is no condemnation.


We also do not need to try to earn points with with God. He is not keeping score. Paul said as much in verse four of Romans 8. God did what he did in Jesus so that "the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." You could never earn enough points to gain God's favor. You could never do enough to deserve his grace. Never. You could never be good enough to deserve his love. God knows that and that is why Jesus went to the cross to take care of the grace problem.


You know what else? He loves you so much that he wants you to know him. He likes you and wants to show you each day how to live in the freedom of his love. He wants to teach you how to recognize his voice.


What you learn about his love and experience in him leads to greater trust. I used to think of trusting God as something I had to make myself do. You know how it goes if you have been on this journey with God for any length of time. Life's circumstances become so very hard that you find it difficult to see that things will turn out all right. You know God has said that you can trust him, but it is not easy to do that. Right? Isn't that how it goes? Well, what I have begun to understand that trust really is more of an outcome than a decision. Everything about my life is in the Father's hands. Everything! Nothing escapes his watchful, loving eyes. As I understand more about his love for me, I naturally trust him more. 


Trust, in the best sense, is not a choice. It is an outcome. It is the fruit of my ever growing confidence in Father's love for me. My own trust in Father is growing because he keeps winning me over to his trust. He keeps showing me that in spite of my goofiness, my lack of wisdom, my weaknesses, my constant propensity to mess things up, ad infinitum, he is with me and lovingly holds in his hands everything about my life. How can I not trust this kind of love?!


One of the beautiful things about this journey with God is that Jesus is the one who grows our trust. HE does it! We cooperate. But, he does it. Jesus is the author of our faith and also the one who perfects it. The Father is always at work wooing us, teaching us, growing us ... and I LOVE that! When I blow it, he's right here cheering me on to not give up, to go at it again. He even brings wisdom across my path to help me not screw up so bad next time. LOL! What an awesome God! 

There's something else about this trust thing I am learning. It comes to my understanding from Matthew's gospel, chapter 6. Jesus said this:

30"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers-- most of which are never even seen--don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? 31What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. 32People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. 33Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

The thing that pops out at me from this passage -- and I think Eugene Peterson's translation hits the bullseye -- is the part about relaxing and not being preoccupied with the wrong preoccupations. He wants to free us from this constant obsession with getting. Getting stuff, things, even getting answers from God. I think we get so preoccupied with getting. Getting, getting, getting. He would like to free us from that so that we can simply live in the reality of what He gives. As I learn the scriptures, I begin to see how God works, how he does things. I watch Jesus as he watched his Father. He was never in a hurry. He was never worried. And, he exampled and taught us to do the same. This is great freedom, my friends! Great freedom! 


There is more to say about that freedom, as well as how that freedom impacts my love for others, my desire to share this life with others who know it, and my longing to share it with those who don't know it. If only they could see our Father as he really is!  ... Later!