Hi friend,
Growing up, I was always in church and believed in God. Even when we no longer went to church, I still carried my faith. Now, did I live out my life like that? Nope. Before I was born-again, I always felt like I lacked something in order to be God’s child. That I needed to “work” or “earn” his love for me. I had this misconception that God needed something from me. I really believed that in order to be a good Christian, I had to do good things for him. I believed I needed to live for love and not from love. I believed that the more I did for him, the closer I could get or more seen I could be.
This lifestyle did not bring me closer to him. It just built more walls around my heart thinking that Jesus didn’t want me as I was, I had to come to him already refined and ready — rather than allowing him to do the refining and restoring. I really believed that if he saw me for who I was that he wouldn’t see me as useful anymore. I know a lot of people see that Christianity is like this, but it’s not.
We are loved for who we are - even in our brokenness. We were loved before we did anything of importance, value, or significance. The love from Christ is unconditional. What does that mean? Unconditional love means we are loved without conditions. We are loved without an expectation of anything in returned. It means that when man and the world are saying, “If you do this or look like this then I will love and accept you.” While God is saying, “Just come to me as you are, I already love you.”
In my early twenties, I discovered my new identity as being His daughter. I don’t live my life for man’s approval, I live from his approval. I don’t live for significance, Jesus already calls me his. I don’t live to have a title because I’ve already been bought by a great price.
Isn’t it so nice to know you’re already loved without an expectation of anything in return? That as a child of God, you’re so loved that his love helps transform you into an even better version of yourself?! He doesn’t need your perfection. He wants your surrender. He doesn’t need good deeds, he just desires your full heart. The rest unfolds from there and our obedience to him!
Know today that you are unconditionally loved by a good, good Father that wants you!
- Brittany