BUT – Devotion 122 – SEEING THE EXTRAORDINARY

Our world is conditional. We find ourselves putting conditions on most everything. I will do this, BUT… I will be glad to help, IF… This will be good WHEN… We want to condition it. If we put a condition on it, we have an out. It really just negates what we are saying. We want something in return or we want to make sure that our interests are covered. We want to make sure our perspective is taken into consideration. We all do it. It really comes naturally.

I am grateful that God’s love is not conditional for me. I am so thankful that he doesn’t say he loves me BUT. I can’t imagine being loved by God IF. And I know I will never be worthy enough. I know I will never be good enough. I know I won’t earn his love. And I know he loves me even when I am a mess. He doesn’t wait for me to be perfect, since I never will be. He doesn’t sit by and look for me to do enough good things. He simply loves me.

What if we really understood this? What if we really took seriously that God loves us so much and there aren’t any conditions? Would it change the way we see the world? Would it change the way we see the person in the mirror? Would it change the way we love others? I think so. If we really take seriously that we are loved by the Creator of this world, we have a well so deep to pour out love on others. We experience the world in a new way because we experience God in a new way. We may find we are more forgiving. We may find we have patience with others. We may even find our love is a little less conditional. So let’s put the BUT away…and realize just how much we are loved…no conditions. I want to live like that.

Focus Scripture:

1 John 4:7-11

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.