DO YOU LOVE GOD ENOUGH?

Ephesians 3:17b-19:

"And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the LORD's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God."

Do you end the day feeling like you failed God?

Have you ever thought "I don't love God enough?"

At the close of a busy day we can replay our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions and wonder if we love God enough. If we feel peace we assume He is near but if we feel empty we assume God has drifted away. Our emotions can become the thermometer of our relationship with Him. Good days make us feel like a strong believer, whereas difficult days can make us question everything! We can think that if only my passion was stronger, my relationship with Him would be stronger.

That kind of thinking creates exhaustion instead of peace. The gospel invites us to stop measuring our love for God and start resting in God’s love for us. The Christian life has never been sustained by our ability to love God every second of every day, it is sustained by the unchanging love that He has already poured out through Jesus. The finished work of our Saviour remains true whether we feel encouraged or discouraged. His righteousness does not become weaker because our emotions become louder. Our confidence rests in Him; not in ourselves.

The apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:19:

“We love because he first loved us. "

Notice the order, our love is the response not the foundation. The foundation is God’s love revealed in His Son. When you reverse that order, your heart will constantly live under pressure. When you receive it in the proper order your heart begins to rest.

Paul reminds us in Romans 8:1:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

That means even on the days when we wish our love for God felt stronger, condemnation has no place in our lives. The cross has already answered every accusation. Our acceptance is settled because Jesus has already accomplished everything necessary to bring us near.

Isn't it true that love grows best where there is security?

A heart that constantly fears rejection struggles to rest; but we have not been given a relationship built on uncertainty, we have received adoption!

We have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15).

We are not trying to become part of God’s family, through Christ we already belong!

Sometimes we become so focused on our love for God that we stop enjoying His love for us; we spend more time examining ourselves than beholding Christ. Yet Scripture continually points our attention away from ourselves and back to Him. As you become more convinced of His love, your heart responds with greater freedom instead of greater pressure.

The Holy Spirit is not working to make us obsessed with our shortcomings, He is revealing Christ to us.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that as we behold the glory of the Lord, “we are being transformed into the same image." Transformation happens as our attention is captured by Jesus, not by endless self-evaluation.

Think about what that means for us on a daily basis. We do not wake up every morning trying to convince God that we love Him enough, we wake up as someone who is already completely loved. Then from that place of security, our worship becomes joyful and our prayers become honest. There will be days when our hearts feel full and days when they will feel weary... neither changes who Jesus is for us. He remains our righteousness, our peace and our lives.

Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:19 that believers would:

“Know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

He did not pray that we would become experts at proving our love to God, he prayed that we would continually discover Jesus' love for us, and that revelation is what strengthens the heart.

So if you have been hard on yourself because you cannot love God with perfect consistency every hour of every day, stop carrying a burden that Jesus never placed on you. Rest in the love that has already been secured through His finished work.

Let His faithfulness become our confidence.

Let His grace become our foundation.

The more convinced we become of how completely He loves us, the more our love for Him will naturally grow, not as an obligation, but as the joyful response of a heart that has found its home in Jesus.

How wonderful is that!

God bless