3:357 – God Doesn’t Depend on Us

#faithbites #faithjourney depend

Setting

Last night as I was laying in bed, these statements popped into my head:

• When we are good, God is good
• When we are not good, God is good
• When we need, God provides
• When we don’t need, God provides
• When we call out, God listens.
• When we are silent, God listens.
• When we are hopeful, God is present
• When we are lost, God is present

I wasn’t sure why that came into my head except to remind me that God doesn’t need me. His love is not fickle. He won’t change how he views me because of my behavior. I don’t have to earn his love. His love is given freely and my sins are cleaned by the blood of Christ.

Thinking about it this way changes your outlook. I am a sinner and God is still there. No matter what season of my life, he is there and helping. What we need to do is get out of God’s way, trust in him, and know that he is God. Whether I fail or succeed it’s on me and not because God is mad at me or turned his back on me. It’s because I turned towards him (succeed) or turned away from him (failed). God first!

Scripture

• Romans 8:38-39 – For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 1 John 5:3 – For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Reflection

There it is in black and white (text or ink if you print it). God has made promises to us and NOTHING will break them. We can’t unearn his love as we couldn’t earn it in the first place. God will always be there for us, inspite of ourselves. He loves us and his love doesn’t depend on anything.

Now, this doesn’t give us free reign to be sinful. God tells us how to live and when we fail, which we do, we are to ask for forgiveness. We should do everything in our power to follow his word and his commandments.

I will close with this message of hope. The holidays can be very challenging. Our church has a Blue Christmas each year and a recent message was “Hope In Depression” It is ok to be sad and down. Just remember that God has always and will always love you no matter what. He is your rock, your redeemer, and your savior. You can’t undo that.

Challenge

Easy (or hard) challenge. Rest in the Lord. Know he loves you no matter what. You don’t have to earn his love.

Prayer

Father God, we thank you humbly for your steadfast, never ending, love. In our world, we think we have to earn everything we get. You are different. You give no matter what. Your love doesn’t depend on our actions. Thank you for always being there for us. Help us to rest in your love. In your name, Amen.