“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” –Jeremiah 31:3
The love of God is something all believers give lip service to, but I am convinced that few really understand it or take seriously what it means. When we walk around with guilt on our shoulders, feeling convinced that we are unlovable, that God is angry with us, or fed up with our continual failings, we do not understand the love of God. When we feel that God is not active in our lives, not answering our prayers or meeting our needs, we do not understand the love of God. When we feel afraid that we may do the wrong thing and God will not listen to us or come through for us, we do not understand the love of God.
Let me tell you what the love of God is: the love of God is the unconditional love of a parent for a small, helpless child, a child who is sick and hurt and weak. The parent does not begrudge the child its childishness, or punish it for being ill, or refuse to help it because it cannot help itself, or cast it away because throws tantrums in its discomfort. The parent nurtures the child, cares for it, stays up late at its side, pouring love and care over its small feeble frame, protecting it and guarding it unto death. This is the love of God. It is a love that does not care for your past or your present, but the direction of your future. It is a love that has no end, that guards its beloved with a furious jealousy against all that seeks to draw it away or do it harm. It is a love that seeks to lift up and heal the broken, sick spirit within us all.
It is a love that loved you while you were unlovable, far from God, far from hope, with no power or desire in your spirit to turn to God. As broken, sinful souls it was impossible that you could have turned to God unless He first drew you to Himself; God chose you before you chose Him. His saving work began in your life before you responded to Him, because the only response you could have given Him before His Spirit poured grace on you was to turn away from Him. He made you alive while you were dead, made you a new creation and placed His Spirit within you, filling you with His love, a love He will never take away. He did not turn from you when you were altogether without God, lost in sin and unwilling to turn to Him; He will not turn from you now when He lives within you. You may at times fight and resist His Spirit, but “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:13). Take note of that: it is God who is at work in you to do what is right; those good things do not come naturally from yourself.
The point is this: If you don’t think you are good enough, you’re absolutely right. But it’s not about how good you are, it’s about how good God is. God knows you and chose you for Himself when nothing good existed within you, and He will not let you go now. God is not angry with you, and if you have an idea of God waiting on high ready to strike you down if you do the wrong thing, ready to withhold good from you and ready to turn His ear away from your prayers, that idea does not come from Scripture. When your mind and heart tell you that you are a failure, that everything is your fault and that you are not good enough for God, remember: “God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20). What is it that God knows? God knows that He loves you, that He saved you, and that He will see you through to the end of your days. “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” (Hebrews 13:5): that is the love of God.
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