Does God Still Love Me Even After I Did What I Did?
One of the most amazing things about God is, when you look at the people in the Bible, He never called or used perfect people to do his work. Abraham lied twice about his wife, saying she was his sister. Noah was a drunk. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer and Rehab was a prostitute. But despite what these people did and their shortcomings, God used them in a mighty way.
This tells us that nobody is perfect, yet we serve a God who knows that and still loves us and wants us.
The best story to illustrate this point is the story found in Luke 15 about the prodigal son. The son asked for his father's inheritance before his father died. The Bible says he left the house and took the money and he squandered all his wealth. He also went into wild living. Later on, a famine came and he had no food and needed to find a job, but when he did he worked with the pigs. This was a sign he had hit rock bottom because Jewish people were not allowed to touch or eat pigs as they were unclean. But he longed to have the food the pigs were eating.
Life was not going well, but this son had messed up. Taking his father’s inheritance early, was the biggest disrespect to his father and a mistake in his life.
But the Bible says he came to his senses and he said to himself "I’m just going go home to my father. I’m going to be one of my father's servants."
As he was on his way home, the story tells us that the father saw him, ran to him, and had compassion for him. Then it says the father kissed him and put his arms around him. Then he told the people to bring his son a robe, put a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. His father asked the servants to kill the calf to have a feast to celebrate his son's return home.
When we think about all the father did for the son despite his behaviour, his disrespect to his dad, and his sin, it's a picture of what God the Father has done for us and makes us wonder how could God love us like this.
This is what unconditional love looks like. No matter how many times we’ve messed up, how far off we are, and what we have done, God still loves us.
And just like the father in the story, God gives us more than we deserve. The son did not deserve the robe, the ring, the sandals, and the feast, but the father gave it to him anyway, because that’s what a good dad does.
We too don't deserve to have our sins forgiven, we don't deserve heaven, we don't deserve God's mercy and grace, but we get it anyway because our Father is a good dad.
When you think about the mistakes you’ve made in life, maybe you feel shame. Maybe you feel guilt. Maybe you think God does not love you. But just think about the son in this story, who realized "I’m just going to go back to my dad." That’s what you can do too you can just go back to God the Father and ask for forgiveness and start fresh.
Whatever you did, God loves you
Whoever you did it with, God still loves you.
And no matter how many times you do it, God still loves you
This is the kind of love that makes us sing.
Makes us give up salaries and jobs to go into full-time ministry.
Makes us give up our money to expand His kingdom.
Makes us use our gifts and talents to spread the word of God's love.
Because we don’t have this kind of love with the people around us. Sometimes instead of mercy, we get rejection, silence, and mistreatment from the people around us. But the God who created the heavens in the earth loves us like this. And if God can love us like this, won't we accept this love and live life with a new start?
And won't we tell others about this great love?
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