Love Got It Right

By By Matt Petersen, Wycliffe USA Vice President for Strategic Prayer and Marketing

Post date: July 1, 2019

Do you try to earn God’s love? Sometimes I do.

I grew up in a Christian subculture obsessed with rules and, as a compliant child, I was pretty good at following them. I liked hearing people say I was a “good kid;” it made me feel accepted and appreciated.

But I was also terrified that one day I’d fail to meet expectations and be rejected — not just by people, but by God. I often struggled with deep depression because no matter how hard I tried, I knew I couldn’t get everything right.

God brought a lot of healing in my adult years through loving friends and family and through a better understanding of Scripture. Romans 3:20-22 says that no one was ever made right with God by following rules. His law was created to convict us of our sin and show us how much we need Jesus. As I’ve come to understand this truth, it’s much easier to give myself grace and extend that grace to others too.

When I was younger, I didn’t mean to criticize or judge other people but, in recent years, family members have told me I’m a lot more enjoyable to be around now. It turns out that by judging myself, I made them feel judged too. But now, as I accept God’s grace and love, they also experience the same through me.

Sometimes I still catch myself slipping back into a performance-based mindset, trying to earn God’s favor, but I receive his grace a lot faster than I used to. Instead of imagining God disappointingly tallying another loss on my scorecard, I now tend to picture him chuckling good-naturedly at my silly attempts to impress him.

Then I imagine God putting his arm lovingly around my shoulder. I hear him remind me to rest because Jesus already got it right for me. It’s an amazing feeling.

Questions for Reflection:

• In what ways do you try to earn love?

• Is it harder for you to extend grace to others or accept it for yourself?

• How can you better demonstrate the limitless love and grace of God to others by fully accepting it for yourself?

Dive deeper into what it means to learn to live loved by reading the Deeply Rooted devotional.

Para leer en Español oprima aquí.