The Unconditional Love of God

1 John 4:7-10

God’s Love and Ours

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  NIV Bible Gateway.com

   One of the biggest struggles many people face is a feeling that the Lord couldn't possibly love them. Yet, today's reading clearly tells us He does. Far from just saying so with words, God has also given us ample proof. Creation itself is an expression of the awesome way he cares for us. He designed this earth as the perfect habitation for humanity and provides us with the necessities of life. But the highest expression of His love is manifested in His provision for our eternal needs. He sent His Son to redeem us from sin so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God - and then live with Him in heaven forever.
   Why, then, with all this evidence, do so many of us still doubt His love? Perhaps the reason is that we are looking at it form our own limited perspective: Since human beings cannot love others unconditionally, we doubt that the Lord can. After all, worldly logic considers it reasonable to be loving towards people who measure up to our standards but to hold ourselves aloof from those who don't.
   Or maybe we just feel unworthy of His love. Well, I have news for you: No one is worthy. God's love is based not on whether we are deserving but on His character - we need to understand that love isn't simply something God does; it's who He is (1 John 4:8).
   Divine love is a demonstration of God's commitment to our greatest good. It's like the ocean's tide. You can stand on the shore and say, "I don't believe in waves," but that doesn't stop them from coming. Likewise, nothing you do or feel will stop the Father's love from washing over you.
Stanley, Charles F. "The Unconditional Love of God." In Touch: Daily Readings For Devoted Living September 2016. Atlanta: In Touch Ministries. page 6.

How We Get Into Bondage and Why We Don't Get Out

Freedom in Christ Ministry books by Neil Anderson and Mike & Julia Quarles

 How We Get Into Bondage and Why We Don't Get Out

1.  Our greatest needs are to be accepted (loved) and have worth (value).  This is what drives us to do what we do.  It is the motivation behind all behavior.  God made us that way and His design is that He will meet all our needs when we look to Him.

2.  As we grow up, have problems and go through life we get messages about who we are.   At first they are only feelings about ourselves, but they quickly turn into what we believe about ourselves.  It is the way we see ourselves and who we believe we are.

3.  As a result we all develop a false identity about who we are.  This false identity comes from the world (family, environment, hurts, trauma), our flesh (ways we try to live life in our own resources) and the devil, who constantly accuses us and tells us lies about ourself, God and what we need in life.  It shapes all of our life and everything we do.

4.  We begin to try to meet our needs for acceptance and worth the best way that we can -- in our own resources (flesh).  As a result we develop ways of living as we attempt to cope, escape, defend ourselves, succeed (or avoid failure). These are flesh patterns or ways that we learn to live life independent of God.  We develop these patterns based on how we perceive ourselves, what we believe about God and how we think life works.

5.  A flesh pattern is simply a way that we have learned to meet our needs independent of God.  All of us have them because none of us were born Christians and none of us look to God to meet all our needs all the time.  We wrongly think it is just the way we are. One of Satan's biggest lies is that what we do determines who we are.

6.  Some of these ways (flesh patterns) are unacceptable such as irresponsibility.   Some of them are very bad such as drug and alcohol addiction.  But some of them are acceptable such as perfectionism and driven to succeed. We need to know that anything that we do to meet our needs apart from God is flesh.  It could be good, right, noble and even spiritual, but if we are trying to meet our needs instead of looking God, it is flesh.

7.  Some of these ways develop into strongholds such as drug addiction which causes a lot of problems in our lives.  As we seek help, more than likely the counsel is to focus on the wrong behavior and try to change it.  This is the reason we don't get free.   The root problem is not the behavior.   The root problem is the misbelief behind the behavior.  As long as a person believes lies about himself he will never get free, no matter what he does.

8.  Alcoholism, addiction, eating disorders, etc., are not the problem.  The problem is the lies we believe about who we are that causes us to try to meet our needs in our own resources. The reason we don't easily give them up is that the way we meet our needs for acceptance and worth is the way we find life and identity.  It is deeply ingrained in us.

9.  When a person learns that they are not a failure, an addict, unloved, insecure, inferior and guilty -- BUT are forgiven, accepted, competent, complete, righteous and secure in Christ, they will begin to change and experience freedom. A person who understands who they are in Christ will not engage in self-destructive, addictive behavior as a life style.

10.  The reason few are finding freedom is that they are trying to change their behavior. They may be trying to change it through spiritual disciplines, but that is nothing but Christian behavior modification (legalism). A person will always act in accordance with how they perceive themselves. 

www.freedomfromaddiction.org/Truths

 

"The Search for Significance" by Robert S. McGee

The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee

Significance: a sense of value, importance, and worth, having a meaning.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bearfruit-fruit that will last…John 15:16

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

1 Corinthians 3:16

Wow!!! Wonderful!!! God’s definition of how significant I am to Him. This is beyond my wildest dreams! These versus are just a few that tell you and me how much we are worth- our significance- to God.

Where do you think you have looked to find significance?

What do you think you have tried to do to make you significant?

Additional Resource: Search For Significance Robert S. McGee