For most of my life I struggled with accepting God’s unconditional love for me. I could accept it intellectually but I had a hard time accepting it personally.
Because of this I had a very warped view of God.
I thought God was eagerly waiting in heaven to whack me with a big stick when I sinned. I would literally go through my day wondering when the punishment would come and what it would be.
I also believed that God couldn’t love me for who I was. I thought that I had to be better or get my life more in order before God could fully love me.
I believed God could only love a future version of me.
Can anyone else relate to this?
Thankfully, over the last several years, I have come to learn God doesn’t love a future version of me; He loves me right now – just as I am.
God does discipline us when we sin but He disciplines us in love because we are one of His children.
God isn’t waiting in heaven with a big stick to whack us with when we sin; He is waiting to pick us up and remind us of His unconditional love for us.
We don’t have to get our lives in order before God will love us.
If that was the case then God couldn’t love any of us because we are all messed up!
We are all broken!
But thankfully God has chosen to love us anyway.
Now here is the most beautiful part of God’s love: God loves us as we are but He doesn’t want us to stay that way!
He wants to transform us so that we can experience life to the full!
It is in this truth that I find great comfort and encouragement and I hope that you do too.
Have you believed that God could only love a future version of you?
Here is an excellent book that I recommend on this subject: The Search For Significance: Seeing Your True Worth Through God’s Eyes
This post is part of the Blog Carnival on the word “Future” that is happening over at Peter Pollock’s blog. Go and check out the rest of the posts!
Love the Post Kevin, I’ve never heard it stated that way before. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna “steal” this one.
Thanks for sharing
Feel free to steal away Artie!
Awesome Kevin.
I’m reminded of a quote from Brenning Manning: “God says to us: I dare you to trust that I love you just as you are, and not as you should be. Because you’re never going to be as you should be.”
I love that quote Ryan!
Thanks for sharing!
That was awesome! Thanks Kevin!
Thanks Jay!
Such a great way to state it. I know exactly what you mean. What changed it for me was when I was broken and I heard God say, “I loved you and sent Jesus before you ever sinned or failed.” Somehow that made it click for me. I thought He couldn’t love me after I had messed up, but He had already loved and provided for that occasion. Thanks Kevin.
Thanks for sharing Jason!
Love this! Learning to live with the truth of
this filled my life with so much hope.
Thanks Janet!
This is great. And I especially love your title. It snagged my attention and made me want to read what you’d written.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing Jeanne!
So many think they must clean themselves up before God will ever accept them and as you so brilliantly stated, would love a “Future Version of Me.” Just as I am I come to thee are the words we sing as we come to the fountain so He can clean us up.
Amen Hazel!
Thanks for sharing!
What a great reminder. I could feel the pressure lift from my shoulders as I read this post. Will retweet this one. Thanks for the uplifting message
Thanks Jean!
Kevin,
I really enjoyed this one and, yes, I have wondered at times how God could possibly love the me that is here right now. It is really awesome to see God’s kind of unconditional love floating around our falled world, shared from one person to another, knowing that it all came from Him.
Chris
Thanks for sharing Chris!
God is so amazing! While you were writing this post, I was driving home and thinking about the past eight days I had just spent with your beautiful daughters. They demonstrated God’s love to me in so many ways. They showered me with their love and accepted me just the way I am. Their love for me was completely unconditional. I didn’t have to do anything special to earn their love.. They allowed me to be myself with no judgments because I wasn’t like you or Lauren. And their forgiveness was just so sweet! When i made mistakes (and believe me, I made lots of mistakes!) their comment always was, “That’s okay Grandma! We don’t mind it when you make mistakes!” Makes my heart melt! They were so happy to be with me and it was such a delight for me to be in their company. Their love for me filled me with a desire to do special things for them. To make them feel special, just as they made me feel so special. I learned so much from these girls about the way we should love one another. It convicted me! I need to apply these lessons learned to my own life! Also, this is just a sampling of how much God loves me and forgives me! Why do we need reminders of His unfathonable love and acceptance? We are not “junk”! We are precious in His sight! Isn’t that wonderful, and amazing? If we can accept God’s love for us, “just the way we are,” and allow Him to mold us and make us, how much happier and successful we would be. And the bonus is, God is always doing a good work in us, perfecting us, changing us into His likeness.
God has definitely taught me a lot about His love from our girls!
Thanks again for looking after the girls! We really appreciate it!
The title captivated me.
And I was impressed all the way through.
Some deep thoughts and impressive that God wants the flawed person I am today instead of that person whom I think I’ll be tomorrow.
Because the only way I’ll be that person i want to be is when I lose that attitude and become who God wants me to be.
It definitely is transformational truth!
Thanks for sharing Duane!
Great post and very inspiring. I needed to hear this today. Thank you!
Thanks LeeAnn!
It’s a message that I need to be reminded of every day.
What precious, healing thoughts.
It calls to mind a person who could have been so effective had he understood this for himself…a young pastor at our very small church. He told me how insulting he found the “Come, now is the time to worship” song–because who were we to come, “just as you are?” (It turned out that this was only the beginning of his problems.) Thankfully, after seven years of doing all he could to destroy the congregation by browbeating them into his own image, he’s moving on to teaching, which he says is his real calling…
Hopefully, one day, he to will understand that God loves the present him, not the future one…
Come, NOW is the time to worship…just as you are, before Him bow.
It is so sad and detrimental when we don’t understand God’s unconditional love for us. God’s loves us as we are but He doesn’t want to leave us that way. He wants to transform us into His image. This is a life long process and it won’t be complete until we meet Him in heaven.
Thanks for sharing Rachel!
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Live with contentment by resisting comparisons