Check Your Motives: Earning God's Love

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Living Free Every Day®
A ministry of LivingFree.org

Today's Scripture
"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8 NLT

Thoughts for Today
This week we are checking our motives for serving others. We also need to check our motives for serving God.

Have you ever felt as though you could earn God's love? Today's scripture points out that God loves us so much he sent Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Jesus suffered and died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. Because we deserved it? Absolutely not. He did it because of his great love for us.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8 NLT).

We can never do enough to earn his forgiveness and love. He already loves us more than we can begin to comprehend. We just need to believe. To accept his gift of love.

Consider this …

After we become Christians, we may still do things for God so he will continue loving us. Or so he will love us more. But the Bible teaches us he will always love us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39 NLT

"Well, surely he will love me more if I serve him more." Wrong. How can he love us more when he already demonstrated such great love?

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13 NLT

Does that mean it is not important for us to serve God? Of course not. But we need to examine our motives. Are we serving him to "earn points"? To motivate him to love us more? Or are we serving him out of our love for him?

We love because he first loved us.  1 John 4:19 NIV

Prayer

Father, thank you that I don't have to earn your love. I could never be that good or do that much. But help me live a life of service to show my love and thanksgiving for who you are and all you have done for me. In Jesus' name ...
These thoughts were drawn from ... Where is the Image of God in You? by Brad Rymer. The purpose of this study is for us to see how some of the different character traits we have can be used in constructive rather than destructive ways in our lives and relationships so that we are operating more and more in the image of God according to the way He created us. Also, this study can help us better understand others as we build godly relationships. Note: This curriculum was written especially for small groups, and we encourage people to use it that way. However, it can also be used effectively as a personal study for individuals or couples.

 

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