DAY 100 - I LOVE YOU, BUT…
ANDREW MATRONE, YA MINISTRY LEAD
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20
Have you ever heard the phrase, “I LOVE YOU, BUT…”? It’s a phrase that is basically saying, “I love you, but… You got some things wrong with you.” Reality is, we haven’t just heard it, we’ve said it! Probably multiple times. We take the 3 words that create the most powerful phrase in the history of mankind, then with that 4th word, “BUT”, the phrase “I love you” completely loses all its weight. When someone says “I Iove you, but…”, we don’t hear “I love you”, all we hear is what follows… and what follows usually makes us feel everything BUT loved!
I believe there are 2 kinds of love in our world that we usually experience:
1. I love you IF… (If you do this or if you would have done that)
2. I love you BECAUSE… (Because you’re this or because you did this)
We live in a world where our love for each other is based on conditions… If you didn’t have “this” or “that”, THEN I would REALLY love you. Our world tends to go by the motto that “you get what you deserve”. You do good things, your worth is more and you should be treated accordingly… You do bad things, your worth is less and you should be treated accordingly.
Here’s where I’m trying to get with this: most of our life experiences have taught us that love is earned or love is based on performance, and so what we often do is project that onto God and begin to believe that there are conditions or things we must do to earn his love. “I think God loves me, BUT… no way he’s pleased w/ me. I think God loves me, BUT… I’ve gotta be too broken. I think God loves me, BUT… I’ve got too much sin in my life”. Fill in the blank.
Can I tell you something though? The God we serve is not an “I love you IF” God… He’s not an “I love you BECAUSE” God… No. He’s an “I love you IN SPITE OF” God! Despite your flaws, your mistakes, your failures, your past sins, He loves you! That’s good news!
I think the story in the bible that best depicts the nature of God’s love and character is the story of the “Prodigal Son”. It’s found in Luke ch. 15. Basically, this son asks his father for his inheritance, leaves home and spends his money on wild living (you can only imagine what that means). His life gets so bad that at one point scripture tells us that he is literally eating with the pigs. Long story short, he gets this idea that maybe his dad will hire him back as a servant. In other words, he thinks that maybe he can earn his way back to right-standing with his father.
This story has a great twist, though. The son heads back home and before he can even say a word, his father runs to him, kisses him and literally throws a party for him. His father expressed that he didn’t care where he went, what he did, he was just glad to have his son home. He loved him in spite of all the wrong his son had done.
If you’re not familiar with this story, the father represents God and the son represents, guess who? You and Me.
This story depicts how God feels about you and I when we live a little less than perfect. This story represents the love of our God when we run away or fall short. And just like this son, we don’t have to earn our way back into the loving arms of God.
Maybe you’re reading this today and you’ve fallen off the proverbial wagon, you’ve run off and spent your life on wild living, or maybe you just haven’t lived to the standard you’ve set for yourself (that’s different for all of us). Can I remind you of a few things?
God doesn’t love some perfect version of you. He just loves you. (no balancing statements)
God doesn’t love you for who you are, but what you are. (His son or daughter)
God’s love isn’t based on what you do, but what Jesus did on the cross.
You can turn back to God for the simple fact that you’re his son or daughter. Maybe you need to repent of some things in this season, but all repenting is turning from something and turning towards God.
In spite of what you’ve done or where you’ve run in this season, God is waiting for you to return home, not because of anything you bring to the table, but because he just flat out loves you (John 3:16).
Trust that and choose to walk in that promise today!
Praying for you!