Are You Trying to Get God to Love You?


I’ve been preaching through the book of Galatians, and the core message is this: You can never do anything to make God love you more than He loves you right now. Nor can you ever do anything to make Him love you less than He loves you right now.

If you think you have to live a certain way, keep a certain list of rules, live a perfect life to win the love of God, you’re wrong. That’s legalism. If you think you’ve made such a mess of your life that God cannot possible love you, you’re wrong. That’s guilt.

There’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more or less than He does right now. It is in His nature to love, and He loves us just because He loves us. But we have to receive His love, to respond to it, and to learn to love Him in return. When we do, our lives will be different. Our behaviors will change and our attitudes will improve. The indwelling Holy Spirit will form Christ within us and live the Christ-life through us. But it is all of grace, which is the unmerited favor of God.

Don’t let anyone bewitch you with any other message than: Grace plus nothing equals everything.