The church has forgotten the most important rule- to love God, and to do things because of that love.
Before I go on, I will say that it does not apply to all of the church. There are those who will simply read this with no convictions or change of heart because it does not apply to them. But, I would say with certainty that if you must fight to convince yourself that what I'm writing doesn't apply to you, then it most certainly does.
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"
Jesus loves you. He could not love you more. The knowledge that's needed with this is to know why He loves you. Before I say why, I'll clarify what the reasons aren't.
God does not love you based on your righteousness or purity level. Saying "I'm too evil" or "I'm too sinful and dirty" or "I'm too far gone" is not valid. God died for you before you knew of Him, and His death still has power today. He died for you and wanted you before you ever did or even knew about anything good or bad.
It is not because of how much you do or don't do for Him. If that were the case, He would never love anyone except for in glimpses, because no one ever does anything quite worthy of Him (and if they do, it does not last long). You can always have more sincere prayers, deeper worship, and participate in one more ministry. And after you have sinned, His promises have not changed and He is not gone. He desires that all come to know Him.
He does not love you because you were predestined, or because He called some and not others, or loved some and not others. I've seen people come from the deepest pits of hell on earth to Christ's daily glory, and I've heard plenty of stories of those we thought holy both staying truly holy and backsliding to darkness (or turning out to be deceptive). And besides, even if this were not the case, you would not know who was called and who wasn't. Thus, you're just as safe to assume you are chosen as not chosen, and more so chosen because you know about God and the choice.
God does not love you because you love Him. Your feelings of loneliness or rejection are not from or because of God. God cannot hate, because hate is evil and God is not. So, it is senseless to stay in the struggle of God loving you or not. He has already chosen to love you and that choice will not change.
Now, I move on to why He does love you. The first and maybe most logical reason is because He created you to be loved by Him. You were especially designed to be cherished and infatuated over. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. That isn't just a coincidence or a human thought, God created you with a fearful and wonderful process, of which a fearfully and wonderfully made product came of, and has a fearful and wonderful and crazy-awesome destiny. That's you.
Now, hopefully back to my original point. We need to love God, but we should love Him because we want to. We should be pure because we want to be pure. We should do things for Him because we want to do things for Him, not because we ought to. The fuel for all of this is to know that He loves you, and dwell in that.
Going to church on Sunday does not make you a Christian; but rather, because you are a Christian, you go to church on Sunday. No amount of obedience will ever prove that you love God. No amount of humility or church attendance will satisfy Him, and it will never convince you that you love Him. Your loving Him is what satisfies Him, not your actions.
Those who love God know they love Him, and they don't walk around doing miracles and praying over people because they are trying to prove anything, they are doing it because they want to because they want God. They want God because God wants them.
Those who try to love God know that they really don't, they're aware of the struggle- that struggle to convince themselves they're accepted, and to convince God that they love Him. They either don't know or can't accept that God loves them, and that love is unconditional. It's like going to a job where you get paid the same amount regardless of how long you're there or how much work you do, except it's sooooo much better
I encourage you my friends to not stay in the struggle. If you seek God and seek Truth, you will find Him. Why seek Him? Because He is seeking you. He is seeking to overwhelm you in love and peace (that does not mean there is not a cost, but I'm not going into that in this entry).
Jesus loves you, and He could not possibly love you more than He already does.
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