God Loves You Anyway

Rick Warren writes:

Your failures don’t surprise God. He expects them. He knows what we’re made of—because he created us. The Bible says, “God knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14 GNT).

God won’t stop loving us when we mess up. The central message of the Bible is this: God doesn’t love you because of who you are or what you’ve done but because of who he is and what he has done. God made you. He loves you. It’s settled! You can’t make God love you more. You can’t make him love you less. He loves you just as much on your bad days as he does on your good days. His love is not performance based.

The Bible has a word for this. It’s called grace—and it’s absolutely amazing. God looks down and says, “I choose to love you. And you can’t make me stop loving you.” Even when we’re ridiculously bad, God won’t stop loving us. It truly is amazing grace. When you understand his grace, you can relax about your failures and have the confidence to take more risks.

You may have come to God multiple times for forgiveness on the same issue. Maybe you’re not sure you deserve his love and grace. And you’re sure that God has grown tired of your constant efforts at change.

But you can relax. God never tires of a conversation with you. He’s never too busy. No matter how many times you come to him for forgiveness, he’ll be waiting with open arms.

You may have grown up in a home where conditional love was the norm. Your parents’ affections may have been based on your academic, athletic, or social successes. When you failed in one of those areas, you felt the loss of your family’s love.

Relax. That’s not how God deals with you. The Bible says, “[God] canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14 NCV). The Christian life isn’t a mistake-free life, but it can be a guilt-free life. God understands your failures, and he loves you anyway.

That’s amazing grace!

Think About It:

• How does it make you feel to realize that God loves you in spite of your failures?
• How should the realization of how God handles your mistakes and failures impact how you deal with the mistakes and failures of others?
• With whom can you share the good news of God’s amazing grace?

Adapted from “God Loves You Anyway”