Unlike Ours — God’s Love is Unwavering

God’s Love is Unwavering
My Mom had just traded in her old car and bought a new, baby blue Chevrolet Impala. Right away, I asked if I could drive my friend and me to my high school’s football game. I knew she was apprehensive, but she conceded. No sooner than I picked up my friend and made it to the stoplight, that I rammed the backend of another car. Sheer misery for me to see my mom having to deal with the ramifications. She loved me anyway. She had amazing grace.

I have had successes. I have had failures. Neither surprised God. He expects them. He knows what we’re made of. Of course, He does. He created us!

The successes are a no-brainer, and we often take full responsibility and ownership of that success. We worked hard to achieve it. We toiled and were relentless in accomplishing those goals. Yes, we thank God for His wisdom and creativity….but we take pride in what WE DID.

Then there’s the messes — like the car accident that was my fault. My Mom loved me through it. Side note: I’m sure she really was an angel! But here is even better news. God doesn’t stop loving us when we mess up. The central message of the Bible is this: God doesn’t love us because of who we are or what we’ve done but because of who He is and what He has done. God made us. He loves us. It’s settled!

We can’t make God love us more. We can’t make Him love us less. He loves us just as much on our bad days as He does on our good days. His love is not performance based. Thank goodness!

The Bible has a word for this kind of love. It is called grace. AND it is absolutely AMAZING! God chooses to love us and there is nothing we do that can make Him stop loving us. It truly is amazing grace.

When we understand His grace, we can relax about our failures and have the confidence to continue moving onward. We may have to take a step back, but then we scope out the magnitude of God’s abundant grace and we get ready for a comeback that is bigger, better, brighter, and more successful than we could imagine.

No matter how many times we may come to Him for forgiveness…. even on the same issue, He never tires of a conversation with us. He’s never too busy. No matter how many times we come to Him for forgiveness, He’ll be waiting with open arms.

Maybe we grew up in a home where conditional love was performanced based: good grades, top athlete, etc. But, in God’s family – we can relax. That’s not how God deals with the kids in His family. Colossians 2:14 says “God canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross.”

The Christian life isn’t a mistake-free life, but it can be a guilt-free life. God understands our failures, and He loves us anyway. But hear me out! His grace doesn’t mean we can carelessly misuse His love. It is His amazing grace and love that causes us to want to please our Papa (Abba Father) even more.

Isn’t that what we should strive for – showing up as fully devoted, obedient followers of our Lord? Let’s picture “Papa” on His throne in His Throne Room! “Papa – it’s us – your kids!” Then, like the little children that Jesus called to Himself, Father God gives us access to come on in. His arms are open wide to us. His abundant blessings are poured out on us. We might even hear Him say: “Atta-boy and atta-girl!”