The One Thing You Really Need to Know About God’s Love for You
Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In the last post, Part 1: Is Kindness Your Automatic Response When Put to the Test, https://www.katiefrankey.com/inspiration/is-kindness-our-automatic-response/, I explained in depth a problem I have had throughout my lifetime of chasing after feeling significant to others. In fact, I chased it so much that it caused me to be constantly living for a place of approval by anyone I thought was important.
The problem with this kind of thinking, the kind of thinking that kept me chasing down significance is that, first, it is exhausting. I was working so hard at being perfect that I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t make everyone happy at all times, including myself.
The second problem with living for a place of significance is that it is self-serving. I was fighting for a place at the table. Kind of like a game of musical chairs; I was willing to knock out my opponent (anyone who tried to steal my chair) in order to have a place to sit.
I Had it Wrong. I Didn’t Understand.
About a year ago, a friend of mine suddenly passed away. He wasn’t a Christian, and he certainly had a deep mental illness he battled. As I was trying to find God’s invitation for me in the sad feelings I was experiencing, Romans 8:38-39 began to speak to me in a way that I hadn’t understood before.
According to this verse, my friend who wasn’t even a Christian, was still loved by God. Nothing can separate any of us — my friend, you, me —from God’s love. This verse doesn’t say God only loves those who love him. No, instead it says nothing can make God not love us. Whether we are believers or not, whether we have a mental illness or not, whether we are kind to others or not; God loves us. Period.
His love for us endures forever. Whether or not we pick him and choose to love him doesn’t impact his love toward us. He loves us. And he demonstrated His love by sending his son to die — to be the atonement for sin — so that nothing could ever separate his love from humanity.
I need to hear this today and every day. How about you?
How Does This Change Things?
How might your perspective shift if you knew — really knew — that God loves you, no matter what you have done in your life? He loves you; even if you have wrecked things, even if you have shattered some of your relationships with the people in your life. He loves you even if you have been running from him. He loves you even if you made a mistake, or didn’t treat the homeless person you passed on the road today with compassion. God always has, and always will, love you.
You are significant to him. You don’t need to fight for a chair at his table. You already have a place there.
He loves you.
He loves you.
He loves you.
This truth has completely changed me. This truth has turned my world upside down, changing me from a girl who used to find her identity in the approval of others to a girl who now understands that her identity rests in who Jesus says I am; holy, blameless, loved, chosen, significant. It has freed me from feeling the need to chase significance because I am already significant to the one and only person that matters most, God.
Understanding that I am significant to the one who matters most has opened my eyes to see what matters most to him. Simply this: Love others well.
Don’t pretend to love others for a place at the table.
Love others from a place at the table.
Clothed in Confidence
Because of this, I see the world differently. It’s changed how I love my children. It’s changed how I honor my husband. And it has changed how I live each day of my life. I don’t have to strive to please everyone so that I will matter to everyone because I already matter to God.
This freedom from chasing my significance has allowed me to love others in a radically different way. I don’t care if anyone sees my kindness anymore; the only one I want to see me being kind is the person I am being kind to. But even then, I don’t need recognition for it or a “thank you.” The whole world can laugh at me or mock me, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t need to be significant to them. Why? Because God loves me, and he isn’t laughing at me or mocking me. That is enough.
What About You?
How does this truth change you? How does knowing that you don’t need to be a rock star performer to be significant to the God of the universe change your perspective? How does knowing that nothing can stop God from loving you impact how you love others? How does this truth transform the way you love yourself and others?
Next week we’ll put this truth into practice. We’ll learn how to apply it to our daily lives and live from significance instead of striving for significance. I’ll also tell the rest of my story about how I responded to the homeless man as I approached him with nothing in my pockets to give.
Until then, I’d like you to look at yourself in the mirror and see — perhaps for the first time in your life — what God sees. See yourself through his eyes and say out loud to your reflection: ”You are loved and significant, and nothing can separate you from God’s love.” Do this at least once … if not a hundred times. The more you say it, the more you will begin to believe it, and the more transformed your heart will become.