God Revelation No. 2:
God’s Love is
Unconditional
Manning: “It is sad to
say, but the familiar phrase ‘the unconditional love of God’ has become cliche,
a true but trite expression devoid of any real meaning. Words, like anything
else used too often, soon depreciate in value, lose their edge, and cease to
bit into our lives. When phrases, such as ‘unconditional love,’ trip too easily
off the tongue, the speaker’s ego may experience a temporary rush of
exhilaration using an “in” salvation slogan, but his heart remains unchanged.”
On the world race it was recognized in my life by one of my
teammates that I was living under a few different spirits that had major
strongholds in my life; spirits that were not of God. They were: the spirit of
guilt, the spirit of condemnation, and the spirit of shame. There are many
things about my past that I am not proud of. For a couple years in college, and
a year or so afterward I was filling my life with unhealthy
relationships and habits. Thankfully, God’s hand was on me, his presence never
left me, but instead of returning to the unconditional love of God I began to
live under these spirits of guilt and shame and condemnation. During this time
I fell repeatedly to temptations and after each one the guilt, the shame, the
self-condemnation was more and more damning.
On Sundays I would sing about God’s unconditional love at
church and my heart and soul would experience that thrill which that expression
brings, but during the week I was back to falling, and not only my heart, but
my behavior remained unchanged.
I would acknowledge that God’s love for me was
“unconditional” but I was convinced, and not even consciously, that I was “too
bad” or “too much of an idolater” for that to actually be true. I was living as
if God’s love for me depended on my actions, my religious accomplishments, and
my “good name”. When I failed, which was often, the guilt, the shame and the
self-condemnation were waiting for me.
For some of you, you
might think . . . that just doesn’t sound like the Kristen I know.
I hope you can just
accept the fact that I was a hypocrite for a long time.
I am sorry.
I hope you forgive me.
The truth is people, and this is where LIFE comes from . . .
GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU
DOES NOT DEPEND ON YOUR BEHAVIOR!!
But God demonstrates
his GREAT LOVE for us in that,
while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us!
There is now,
therefore, NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus.
CEASE STRIVING and
know that I AM GOD!
THERE IS NO SIN IN
YOUR LIFE THAT IS TOO BIG FOR GOD!!
HE IS ABLE TO ABSOLVE
ANY SIN IN YOUR LIFE.
Are you dead inside?
Are you unfulfilled? Are you dissatisfied?
Are you living with
shame over something in your past?
Are you feeling
guilty because you try and try and try
and still feel like
you never get it right?
– what the hell is it anyway?
My friend, God’s chief desire is not that you obey him.
Don’t be fearful that God is up on high waiting to strike you with lightening
bolts because of the sin in your life. God was angry once over sin . . .
HE WAS
ANGRY ONCE OVER SIN. He is angry no
more.
Let that sink into
the core of who you are . . .
He is angry with you
no more.
He is angry with you no more.
He is angry with you
no more.
ALL OF HIS WRATH WAS LAID UPON CHRIST AT THE CROSS.
The only thing God desires from you is be loved by you in
return and Christ makes that relationship with God possible. Just LOVE HIM.
Release your guilt.
Christ died for that.
Release your pride.
Christ died for that.
Release your shame.
Christ died for that.
Cease striving for love.
Christ died for that.
Cease trying to fill your life.
Christ died for that.
Just love him. Just love him back. He is waiting for you to
love him.
He is waiting for you to allow the magnitude of his love for you to transform
your life.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his
steadfast love toward those who love him; as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our sins from us.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write
it on their hearts. And I will be their God, an they shall be my people. And no
longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know
the Lord,’ for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I
will remember their sin no more.”
In Viile Tecii,
Romania there
is a little boy named Benny. Sometimes Benny is a mischief-maker. Sometimes he
doesn’t listen all that great. Sometimes he is just out-right defiant. I would
get so aggravated when I asked him to do something and he wouldn’t listen, or
frustrated when I would tell him not to do something and he would get this look
in his eye and do it anyway. But each night came his invitation: “Kristen, you
come tonight and get it the milk,” in his sweet little 6 year old voice. At
each invitation my heart would melt and I would strap my headlamp on his head
as we walked hand and hand down the street to the local farmer and get a liter
of milk.
Those were my favorite times in Romania. On those walks, I never
remembered the things he had done previously that day to aggravate me. They
didn’t matter. I remembered them no more. Instead we would sing songs, practice English, wish upon shooting stars, make up silly dances; I would protect him from stray barking dogs, make silly faces just to make him laugh, and carry him on my back when he got tired. Why? Because I love Benny.
God is LOVE.
LOVE is patient, and kind, LOVE does not envy or boast, it is not
arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable; IT KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS; it does not rejoice at wrong-doing, but rejoices with the truth.
LOVE bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things. LOVE never fails.
Rules may change behavior but it does not change the heart. But when you begin to live in relationship with and under the ineffable, unchangeable, unconditional love of God, realizing that his love for you is not determined by your actions, but by His nature, that is when transformation and life happens. I am a living testimony to this. I am able to bring to light things that were hidden in darkness because I am resting in the security of God’s love for me. It has absolutely changed my life.
Manning: “The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea. When it imposes itself on mind and heart with the stark reality of ontological truth, it determines why and at what time you get up in the morning, how you pass your evening, how you spend your weekends, what you read, and who you hang with; it affects what breaks your ear, what amazes you, and what makes your heart happy.
The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment. Small wonder that the late spiritual giant Basil Hume of London, England, claimed that Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.“
