“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” – Psalm 18:19
Alice grew up in strict churches. She had a mental image of God as a mob boss, demanding and cold. Strict and unrelenting.
So, Alice spent all of her time trying to be the good girl. She got the best grades, went to a college her church approved of, and married a man her parents adored.
Despite the fact that her life looked good on the outside, Alice felt like she was falling apart on the inside. She was always worried she was disappointing God and she lived in constant fear.
It wasn’t until her baby boy became sick that Alice finally approached God. “I fell apart, right there in the hospital room where my four month old baby was sleeping. For the first time, I admitted that I couldn’t do it all. It was the first time I’d ever asked God for help.”
She spent the next few days, reading Psalms to her son. “One of them—in Psalm 18, I think—talked about how God rescued David because He delighted in him.”
That was the day, Alice realized that God loved her and truly delighted in her. “Not because I follow the rules or do all the right things but because He loves me, as His child, no doing required.”
What do you have to do get God to love you more, how can He approve of you more, how can you gain His acceptance more? The answer is you cannot. And that is hard for us and I believe the root is in how we define and perceive love.
His love was poured out by the finished work of the cross, but it is not a transactional love that requires us to do good to earn the work He accomplished. We prove our love for Him by walking in his ways, but it is not how gain his love. His death on the cross was the ultimate display of his acceptance and invitation to be with Him. The cross is God’s way of saying “I did all the hard work so that we can be together. My greatest sacrifice was the greatest display of Love. Now let me be God.” Let’s learn to let God be in control once again and put our faith in Him that he has defeated all of the enemies schemes on the cross, and He is holding it all together, not us.
God, sometimes, it’s easy to believe that it all rests on my shoulders. On those days, help me to remember that You delight in me. That You love me and You’re the One holding everything together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
