There is Nothing You Can Do...

There is nothing you can do to make God love you MORE?  Wow...I heard this the other day at a concert and I can't get it out of my head.  I have always heard there is nothing you can do that will make God love you less or not at all...Romans 8:38-39 states: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  This is actually my memory verse this week for my Bible study and it is truth that I take great comfort in.  God's love is constant and unconditional.  But I am finding the truth that there is nothing I can do to make God love me more is even more comforting.  I don't have to earn God's love!  God is not up there saying, "I'm really upset with Mandey today...she didn't do her quiet time and she hasn't served in the community in a while..."  Now, does He want me to spend quiet time with Him, does He want me to serve the needs of my community?  Yes!   But His love is steady and true.  It never wavers.  He doesn't love one of my friends more because they have been on more missions trips and He doesn't love my pastor more because he is the leader of a great church.  His love is unlike anything on this earth...that's why it is so hard to fathom.  Truth be told, we as humans are incapable of loving like Him.  If my child has a great day and is behaving and being respectful and listening, I am inclined to feel a lot more love for him that day, where as the next day, if he is misbehaving and causing me stress, I tend to feel a little less like loving him.  (I am not saying I dont always love my children, but the levels of love can go up and down quite a bit!)  Now, you may wonder why I am writing this...Like I said above, this guy at the concert said this and it has stuck with me.  We have been talking in my church small group about the importance of sharing what we learn from God to others and I feel like God was telling me this at this concert so I wanted to encourage you with it..  He wanted me to stop trying so hard to please Him, to take rest in His unwavering love.  This doesn't mean I am going to stop doing the things that please Him, but I will try and go on from here, and let my works just be an outpouring of thanks and love to my Savior, knowing that He loves me the same, during the good, bad, and the ugly.  I hope that you will find peace in knowing that God's love is unique; you don't have to earn it and He can't love you anymore than He already does.  All He wants is your love and He knows our love is imperfect but He loves us anyway.  Even just writing this makes me smile in sweet relief...thank you God! 

Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.