You Are Loved (And There’s Nothing You Can Do To Change It)

So much of religion is aimed at getting us to fight for and work for and strive after something we already have: God’s Love.

The truth is, there is nothing – not one single thing – you and I need to do to be loved by God.

Why? Because we are already loved by God – totally, completely, unequivocally, and absolutely – with an everlasting love.

Our sin does not separate us from God’s love.

Our failures do not either.

Nothing will ever separate us from the Love of God.

Not angels. Not demons. Not the future. Not the past. No height. No depth. Nothing in all of creation.

Why?

Because God is love. This means that God’s entire nature is to love. It is who God is.

And what about us? Who are we?

We are created by God into the image of God. This means we are created by love into the image of love.

We are love incarnate.

God, who is love created us in the image of love to be loved.

This is who we are.

We are loved.

We are forever defined by this love. Nothing will ever change our identity as those who were created by love, in the image of love, to be loved.

Not even death will change this.

In fact, even if we are totally unaware of these realities, we are still loved.

So, we can be ignorant of this love. We can forget about it. We can even deny this is true. But none of that will actually mean that at any time we are not still loved by a God who is love and who created us in the image of eternal love.

Like it or not – believe it or not – you are still loved with an everlasting love that will never die, never end, never go away, never fade, never cease, and never, ever stop.

Now, you may not feel it right now. In fact, you might feel like total garbage. You might feel like you can’t go on. You may think that no one could ever really love you this way. You might even believe that you don’t deserve such unimaginable love.

But you’re wrong.

Your feelings are not true. Your belief about unworthiness is simply false.

Even when you don’t feel loved, you are still loved.

Even when you don’t feel worthy of this love, you are still loved.

Even when you doubt it, you are still loved.

Even when you feel like garbage. You are still loved more than you will ever know.

To be honest, I don’t always feel loved either. Sometimes I feel like crap. Sometimes I forget these things are true about me, and about God. I start to drift into depression or doubt. I wrap myself in a shroud of sadness and wallow in my feelings of unworthiness.

Even though I know in my heart and mind that these feelings are not reflective of actual reality, I can still feel the pain, the sense of being unloved, or worse of being unlovable.

What helps me, sometimes, is to stop and embrace the silence. When I quietly stop and remember who God is, and who I am, it helps me to reconnect with reality – with the ultimate reality that God is love and that I am loved.

See, happiness is not something external to me. It’s not an object “out there” somewhere that I need to find in order to reach contentment. Neither is joy, or hope, or peace. Those things are not outside of me. They are not things I need to acquire.

Why? Because ultimately what makes me happy is knowing that I am loved. Once I stop and meditate on the truth, I realize that love is who I am. I am loved by the One who is Love and I was created by Love to be an expression of this Love, along with everyone – and everything – else in the Universe.

So, my being loved is what leads to happiness, and peace, and joy. These are not things I do not possess. They are, in fact, things I am.

God is not far away. God is in me. Heaven, by definition, is the place where God dwells. So, if I dwell with God, I dwell in Heaven.

So, where does God dwell? In me. As Jesus says, “My Father and I will come and make our home in you.”

And as the author of 1 John says: “God is love, and those who live in love live in God and God in them.”

Paul also affirms to idol-worshipping pagans in Athens: “God is the one in whom we all live, and move, and have our being.”

God is love. God is near. Nothing will ever change this.

So, if anything needs to change, it’s my perception of these things.

I am loved. I am forever connected with God.

Nothing will change this.

Not even my denial of this radical truth will change it.

I can accept it, or I can deny it. But either way, the truth remains: I am loved. You are loved.

We can start believing it and enjoying this reality now, or we can wait until later to do so.

There’s no hurry. We have an eternity to awaken to these truths.

I’d rather start right away, though.

Wouldn’t you?

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