As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. John 15:9

God is madly in love with you, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. You are His beloved.

Do you believe that? Lots of people will say that they know God loves them but are unsure if he likes them. But how do you love someone or something that you don’t like? If I like someone, I want to spend time with them. God always wants to spend time with you and me. That’s why Jesus invites us to abide in his love.

But what if I keep failing? What if I can’t seem to get on the right side of my sin problem? God loves you even if you never get better. Our relationship status with God has nothing to do with our behavior. If it did, we would have a performance-based relationship with him. And we don’t.

Scriptures say that Jesus was the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world to give us the approval we long for and could never find ourselves. Perhaps it would be healing for you to sit with the following verse from Saint Paul,

Praise…the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Eph. 1:6

Let’s say someone is mean to you and criticizes you. When you abide in God’s love, you can step back and say, along with author Tim Keller, “I have the smile of God; all other frowns are inconsequential.”

It’s an ability to continually say, “I am a son of the King. I am a daughter of the King. My Father loves me with great love, and I already have the only riches that count, the only love that lasts, the only family that matters.”

That’s abiding in his love. That’s remaining in his love. That’s telling yourself the Gospel!

When my oldest son, Cole, was thirteen, he went on his first backpacking trip with a wilderness program I led. Being the preacher’s kid and an eager 13-year-old with older boys made for a painful week for Cole. Because he was eager and awkward, they teased him more than normal. He kept feeling rejected by the cool kids.

He was in a tent with the older boys, trying to fit in, and they kept teasing him so much that he finally left that tent and came to mine.

He said, “Dad, they are so mean to me!  It’s like they don’t care.”

I said, “I know, son.”

He kept looking out of the tent toward the group of boys. Then his head would drop, and he would stare at his hands. Whenever laughter erupted from the older boys’ tent, he would look out of the tent door. He wanted to fit in and be there with those boys.

I remember watching him and thinking, “You are so loved, son. Can’t you feel my love? If you relax in my love, it will mark your life. There will come a day when you will forget those boys’ names, but you will never forget my name. Let my love fill you up right now.”

The power of my love to change my son’s life is significantly limited, but the power of the Heavenly Father’s love to change our lives is unlimited.

I squeezed his shoulder, patted him, and said, “I love you, son.”

He looked out the tent door towards the laughing boys, sighed heavily, and said, “I know. Let’s play some cards, Dad.”

I love what poet and writer the late Macrina Wiederkeher prayed in her book Season of Your Heart,

O God

help me to believe

the truth about myself–

no matter how beautiful it is!  

You are the beloved of God. Believe it. Trust it. Abide in it.

Some of you need to stop looking out of the tent at your inner and outer critics and look up to the Father—you are loved with everlasting love, and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.