I regularly encounter this thought of not being worthy of the love of God. This idea comes from people who are experiencing His love to a degree but most of the time they close their hearts from receiving more. The feeling of not being worthy serves as a dam to restrict the river of God’s love from flowing freely.
I understand that we’ve sinned and failed to live like the people God created us to be. It is a real issue and seems like the only possible result is that we don’t deserve to be loved. We didn’t earn it. We are not good enough for such a great gift from our Creator.
However, the feeling of guilt doesn't stop the hunger for God’s acceptance. We start to do different things to counter the sense of unworthiness. Yet nothing seems to be enough.
I was thinking the same way and accepted only the portions of His love when I felt worthy. Still, I couldn't defeat this uncomfortable feeling of not measuring up. This lasted for several years until I started to meditate on 1 John 4:10.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10, ESV)
The first thing that is clearly visible: not that we but that He. It emphasizes God’s love and neglects our love for Him. His love is the model, not ours.
God appears as the ultimate Giver in the narrative of the Bible. He is responsible for the biggest gift given in the history of mankind. God giving Himself for the world is the climax in the narrative of the Bible.
Can we ever be worthy of this overwhelming gift?
Imagine your friend decides to surprise you with a gift. The motivation of the friend is not your worthiness but his love for you.
The nature of a gift contains a wonderful truth in itself. A giving of a present has a one-direction relation. From the giver to the one who receives. If it’s pure and sincere, it doesn't expect anything back.
On the contrary, if you deserve something you get paid for. Payment is not a gift but wages. It’s a trading relationship.
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. (Romans 4:4, ESV)
Because the gift is not a payment, in the giving of the present, your friend is being influenced by the love for you. His desire is for you to be blessed by his gift which is a tangible expression of his love for you. It’s not a paycheck for your contribution to the friendship and there's no anticipation to win anything out of it.
If you immediately start to think about how to repay a gift you’ve, you disregard the purity of the gift. It was never meant to be a basis for getting something back.
There's no reason for you to think you are not worthy of it.
It’s too late, the gift was already bought. The question of deserving only makes your joy muddy.
The same is with God. He’s sending His love and wants you to receive it. Your self-worth, shortcomings, mistakes, or anything else doesn’t even play a part in God’s decision to bless you. It’s not that we but that He loved us and gave us the gift.
…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, ESV)
The best part about it is that Jesus already has given Himself up and the gift has been handed out. While we had nothing to give to God, He gave us everything. It’s too late to doubt if God loves us. Look at the cross!
It’s all about God’s love for us and not our love for Him. He loved us not because we were worthy but because of who He is. The biggest loss would be in failure to receive what He freely gave us. The Giver deserves to succeed in the giving and His success is our receiving.
