If you gave this question serous consideration, we probably need to talk.
The saddest words I hear from people are those that wonder if they are worthy of God’s love. That question is predicated on the biggest lie to find it’s way into God’s creation—that love can be earned.
It can’t.
Nothing disproves that lie better than the coming of Christ into our world that we celebrate at this Christmas season. He didn’t come to redeem people the Father was disgusted with, but those he loved. Even on the night Christ was born, the shepherds heard the angels proclaim, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Pleased? Really? With all the brokenness in the world? Sin was rampant, Humanity was ever at war with itself and his own people were under Roman captivity and lost in their legalism. How could God be pleased with humankind?
Luke certainly didn’t mean God was pleased with the brokenness in his creation, but that he was pleased with humanity in spite of it. God’s love is not so fickle as to come and go based on how good we are. Love is love, even at our most broken, no less than you would have for your children. Our struggle in the darkness only endears us to him as his compassion seeks to rescue and redeem us.
We are all worthy of love because of the place we hold in Father’s heart. No failure, or broken place changes that. The prodigal son was loved as much when he was wasting his father’s money as he was when he returned home. It’s just that he wasn’t living in that love. He didn’t believe it and though he thought he had good evidence for his conclusion, they were based on the lie. Even when he returns home he considers himself “not worthy” to be called a son.
But he was worthy simply because of the value he held in his father’s heart. The joy of the Gospel is not in getting God to love us, but to relax into the reality of the love he already has for us. Those who grew up abused or neglected have a hard time embracing that. The rejection of their parents seemed proof that they were so flawed as to be unworthy of love. But that is just part of the lie.
Those who grow up in religious settings, who think their performance can endear them to God, fall victim to the same lie. You can’t earn what you already have. You are loved, no less today than when the Father conceived you in his heart before you were born.
That’s the Gospel. Believe it or not, the Creator of the universe is your loving Father. You have the choice to run to that love and embrace it, or hide outside of it as long as you want. Love offers a door; it doesn’t force it’s way.
He loves you as much as any other person on the planet. For those who don’t know that in the deepest part of your soul, Sara and I are praying that Father will reveal that to you and you will find the freedom to joyfully embrace how deeply he delights in you. That’s where this journey of faith truly begins.
And what a Christmas miracle that is!
Notes For the New Year:
Wayne’s Latest Book Is Almost Here
Beyond Sundays, Wayne’s newest book, will be available early in 2018. It will cost $12.00 and we’ll begin taking pre-orders in early January. It will also be available by e-book as soon as we can get that done.
This is an adaptation of blogs postings Wayne has written over the last year about the current dilemma of people leaving the traditional congregation and the opportunity it affords for the whole church to celebrate all the ways that Father is at work among his people and how he is preparing the bride for the return of his Son.
Travel Dates for Early in 2018
- Jacksonville, FL- January 18
- Raleigh, NC – January 19-22
- Greensboro, NC – January 23-24
- Charlotte, NC – January 25-29
- Phoenix, AZ- February
- Abilene, Tx – March 22-25
If you’re in these areas and still want to plan something, we do have some available time. Or if you just want to join us, please see our Travel Page, where details will be posted when we have them. If you’d like to be notified when I’m coming to your area you can sign up on our email list and include your address.
Kenya Update
Thanks to the generosity of so many of you, we have given just under $200,000 this year to the people in Kenya with orphan children and to help the people in Pokot establish a sustainable future. We put in two agricultural projects so they can grow their own food, and have helped with hospital staff, medicine, food, education and micro-finance loans to help create enterprise. Get more information here.
Staying Up With Lifestream
If you did not receive this by email yesterday or today, then you re not signed up for our blog or our mailing list. If you’d like to be, you can do so here. Include your address details if you want to receive Travel Updates when I’m planning a trip to your area. If you’re not signed up to get my blogs or the podcasts straight to your inbox, you can go to those home pages and submit your email address in the appropriate are.
![The Security of Father's Love [Audio] by Wayne Jacobsen](https://www.lifestream.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SecurityFathersLove.jpg)
Amen and Merry Christmas
Not!
I am NOT worthy of His love. I never will be. I am a sinner saved by grace
(barely), but I will never be worthy of His love.
What do you think is behind grace, Paul?
Grace means in spite of …..
In spite of my sin, He still loves me. But grace
does not make me WORTHY of it.
Hi Paul. Don’t mean to be difficult here, and in the end we may just see this differently, but I don’t know where you’re getting your definition for grace. In the Greek it means, “good will, loving-kindness, favou,” not “in spite of…” As I read your response you think sin makes us unworthy of his love and I’m suggesting that we are worthy of his love because of the worth he puts on us, even when we are lost in the sin and darkness. He LOVED the world before he redeemed it in Christ according to John 3:16. Maybe you’re afraid I’m a universalist. I’m not. We are all loved by Father (as the prodigal was even lost in sin), but not all are saved by that unless we come home to that love. The prodigal could have stayed away and though deeply loved by the Father, he would not have been “saved” from his sin.
Our righteousness doesn’t make us worthy in his eyes, nor our sinfulness unworthy in his eyes. He values us as his Creation and set about out of his great love for us, to redeem us to himself.
I just don’t see your definition of Grace, and for people who have a hard time receiving the love of God, they would see your argument as excluding them no matter how much they want to embrace him. God has judge us worthy of his love, and that reality is where salvation begins in my mind.
I’m OK if you see it differently, but I don’t want others reading this to think you’ve made a point I concur with.
Maybe one day a book will be written “Our Father’s Grace: His Gift We Don’t Deserve”. Wayne, your point remains that it is up to God to reveal His love for us. That’s on His time, not ours. Scripture says “We love BECAUSE He Loved us.” All we can do each day is to encourage brothers & sisters on their journey to ask God to show how much he loves us. His love can ONLY be experienced, not earned. Paul, it’s written in Romans 3:10-13 “There is NONE Righteous. NO NOT ONE.
11 “There is NONE that understands, there is NONE that seeks after God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”[b]
13
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
It is ONLY by our Father’s Grace that we can endure each day of our lives. So, I can only suggest that you let Father love you in Christ from where you are and take you where He desires you to be on this Journey.
There is a book written about Grace. One of the best books that has changed my life, The Grace Awakening, by Charles R. Swindoll. This book will set you free…..