Perfect Love.

We spend so much time protecting our reputations and hoping people don’t see all of our hidden faults and failures.  We want people to like us so we choose our words and actions ever-so-carefully.  We’re afraid of saying the wrong thing or making a wrong impression.  We want control over how we’re perceived.

I’m guilty of all of the above more than I’d care to admit.

But then there’s God.  The One who created me and everything I see around me.  The One who knows all, is everywhere and is greater than I’ll ever fully wrap my head around.  And He knows every last detail of my life (Psalm 139).  He knows every thought I’ve ever had, everything I’ve ever done (be it right or wrong), every word I’ve ever spoken (or left unspoken for that matter).  He sees through my outward displays and into my heart.  And despite all of the things I’ve said, done and thought that fell so short of His glory… He loves me.  And He loves me with a perfect love.

Where am I finding my worth?  Is it based upon whether or not people compliment me? Or laugh at my jokes? Or is it based upon what God’s word says?  The former can change day to day and person to person.  But the latter is based upon a promise that will never be broken.  The latter is based upon the sacrifice my Savior made for me.  It’s certain and unchanging.

At the end of the day, why strive to win the imperfect love of other people when I already have the perfect love of my God?  And if I have the perfect love of my God, I am free to love others unselfishly and without worrying about whether or not they will love me back.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are…
1 John 3:1

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.   Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:10,11