"My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours. Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track, you and I,of these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way because it is precisely through these stories, in all their particularity,as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally." -Frederick Buechner



Friday, April 9, 2010

Love Me?

I have been haunted by a question for quite some time now. Why is it that we have trouble really accepting the love of God? Over the past several years my life experiences have exposed me to the truth that so many of us have an extremely hard time accepting the love of God for ourselves. It doesn't seem to matter who we are, whether go to church often or hardly at all, read our Bibles a lot or a little, are wealthy or not, pretty or not or even well-educated or not. We all somehow seem very reluctant to believe God could love us and by "us" I mean "me." See I can see how God could love "you" and I can say that I know God loves "me." But do I really believe it?

I have family members and friends who prayed to accept Christ as their Savior years ago, but still live working, serving, or performing because they feel like they have to in order to really be a part of God's family. I personally have a little different angle on it. For the most part I do believe God loves me, but I sometimes do things because to show or prove to someone else that I believe it. Both of these beliefs make me sad. Call me simplistic but I think WE MAKE this complicated and it's really not. The Bible uses very descriptive words to help us us understand the truth. So let's start at the beginning.

I John 4:8b "God is love."
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:5b "because God has poured out his love into OUR hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."
Deuteronomy 7:6 "For you are a people holy to the LORD you God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (All scripture from the NIV of the Bible)

So here's my take on all of this. God is love. (period) We don't really get that because we "love" pizza, purple and puppies, but we don't "love" puppies when they chew up our favorite shoes or run away on a walk. We try to make God's love into something we can understand. It's not the same. God is love. With His love He chose to love us while we were (& are) sinners. Then He poured His love into our hearts. He chose us. We are His treasured possession. It's all about Him, not us.

What do you think?
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