In this episode, I share more about how this truth has played out in my own life — and the steps you can take to make it real in yours.
God Doesn’t Require that You Earn His Love
👉🏻 That requirement is not found anywhere in the Bible.
In fact, the Bible clearly tells us that God loved us first and as we are:
1 John 4:19 (NLT) says, “We love each other because he loved us first.”
Ephesians 1:4-6 (MSG) says, “...Long before [God] laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”
Romans 5:6-8 (MSG) says, “Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”
And in John 15:16 (NLT), Jesus tells His disciples, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you.”
These are just a handful of verses. (And if you’re not familiar with Jesus, don’t worry.)
❤️🔥 The big idea here is that God already loves you unconditionally despite you being broken, imperfect, sinful, and unable to save yourself. (Which is true of every human.)
The gift of His love is already present, just waiting to fill your heart and transform your life.
You don’t need to earn God’s love, just accept it.
God Wants You to Lean Into Him – Not Religion
📖 Religion – as the Bible defines it – is when humans create man-made structures (i.e., rules, goals, systems, etc.) that place the focus on earning God’s love instead of accepting it.
This places a massive weight upon people’s shoulders that is completely unnecessary.
There’s no need to try and meet unrealistic expectations in order to earn something that God is freely offering.
God is More Interested in Your Heart than Your To-do List
😍 God’s primary focus is on the leaning of your heart (aka your heart posture).
In 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) we read: But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” [Emphasis mine.]
God sent the prophet Samuel to seek out a man named Jesse, for one of Jesse’s sons would be the new king of Israel.
When Samuel arrived, he took one look at Eliab, one of Jesse’s sons, and immediately thought he must be the new king. Verse 6 says: When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Here he is! God’s anointed!”
Scripture doesn’t go into detail, but we can assume from Samuel’s reaction that Eliab looked the part from the outside. He was likely tall, strong, and handsome. Eliab might have been working hard to build and sculpt his muscles, adding extra training sessions among his everyday routine.
But in verse 7, which we just looked at, God tells Samuel that He’s more concerned with a person’s heart than how they seem on the outside.
As it turns out, none of the seven sons that Jesse initially presented to Samuel was the Lord’s future king. Instead, Jesse had to fetch his youngest son, David, from tending the flocks out in the fields to stand before Samuel. And God confirmed that he would be king!
David then went on to kill Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Something that took a lot of courage and faith.
God didn’t choose David because he was perfect, sinless, and would never make a mistake. As king, David would commit adultery and have a man murdered to try and cover up his sin.
God chose David in large part of his heart posture. In 1 Samuel 13:14 (NLT), it says, “...for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.” That man being David.
When God says that He’s interested in the leaning of our hearts, it means He’s more interested in Who or what we’re pursuing rather than what we’re doing (i.e., how big our to-do list is).
A heart that’s actively pursuing God first brings Him great joy.
