For Whoever Needs This...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Sometimes, listing to a sermon sparks a whole train of thought.  That happened this morning...sitting at my table, watching online, listening to a sermon taken from 1 John 3 and 4.

Pastor made a reference to people who believe that, because of what they have done in their past, the choices they've made, the people, they've hurt, whatever, God could not possibly love them.

Suddenly, the train left the station.

I don't know who might read this at any point ...whether it's ten minutes from the time I hit the Publish button or ten years later...if you found yourself agreeing with the statement 'God could never really love me,' Then this post is for you.

The point that stuck me suddenly is....you are not what you do.  In our culture, it's common to consider someone according to their occupation...housewife, engineer, nurse, teacher, janitor, waitress, etc.  It's one of the first questions we ask when we are getting to know someone. 'What do you do?'...and we have all heard the chiding from folks who study these things that say it's not good for us to sink our identity into our profession...into what we do.  Because, while we may be someone who teaches, or someone who has medical knowledge to care for the sick and injured, or someone who knows how to run complicated mathematical algorithms to build amazing vehicles or buildings...that's is still just what we do.  It is not...identity.

By the same token, someone who has made bad choices, who has deceived or hurt others for their own advantage, who has been angry at God and deliberately undertook to get back at Him for some perceived injustice, who has [you fill in the blank with your particular issue]...is not what they did.  That is not their identity.  It is just what they did.

Now, humans don't see past that.  We are limited in our vision. We judge, point fingers, write people off...God help us.  But God...God sees through the murk and mess of bad choices and reprehensible actions.  He looks through the layers of consequences that seem to trap people in their error.  He shuts out the lies of the enemy declaring that the actions have made us unloveable.  

Because He knows every human child is created in His image.  He knows that every person who has breath has value.  

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. -- Rom 5:8, NIV 84

People love conditionally.  God loves unconditionally.  While we were still in rebellion, still living according to our own agendas, still refusing to listen to Him or even appreciate what He was doing...Jesus died on our behalf so we could be restored to Him.

And that has nothing whatever to do with anything any individual walking around on the planet did or did not do.  He has already done it for you.  It is already there.  He loves YOU, and whatever you have done, whatever pain you have caused, whatever foulness you have gotten involved in doesn't matter.  

You do.

All you have to do is receive that love and let Him straighten everything out.  Because that's what He does.