God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins (Romans 5:16; NLT).
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23; NLT).
The background to this blog is that I have never felt worthy of anyone’s love, let alone the love of God.
After a particularly tired and unproductive day, this is how I prayed before settling down to sleep: “I’m so sorry that I can’t do anything to earn your love, my God.”
Then I was gently reminded that I don’t need to earn God’s love, and that I cannot earn God’s love.
This is because no matter what I do, and what I cannot do, God loves me very much, and nothing will ever stop God from loving me.
So, with a sense of relief and thankfulness, I prayed again: “Thank you, God, for loving even me.”
God’s love toward us is great, God’s faithfulness, eternal (Psalm 117:2; TIB).
References
YHWH, you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. YHWH, you are good to all and compassionate toward all your creatures (Psalm 145:8-9; TIB).
God, rich in mercy and loving us so much, brought us to life in Christ, even when we were dead in our sins. It is through this grace that we have been saved. God raised us up and, in union with Christ Jesus, gave us a place in the heavenly realm, to display in ages to come how immense are the resources of God’s grace and kindness in Christ Jesus. And it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and even that is not of yourselves, but the gift of God. Nor is it a reward for anything that you have done, so nobody can claim the credit (Ephesians 2:4-9; TIB).