A good friend of mine made a comment the other day that went something like this :
God is faithful to those who are faithful to Him.
While it's true that God is faithful to those who are faithful to Him, it is also true that He is faithful to those who are not faithful to Him. He is just faithful. From my perspective, faithfulness is just a dimension of His love, which, for any mortal, is completely unmerited. There's nothing we can do to make God love us, or to be faithful to us. His love comes from his grace, and that too is nothing that we can earn.
It's easy to fall into the trap of subconsciously thinking we have to do something in order to earn something from God.
"This is real love - not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." I John 4:10
This week, be mindful of the things you do to try and earn something from God. Not directly of course, but through your actions and your thoughts. When you realize you are doing this, take a mental and emotional step back, and remind yourself that there is nothing you can do to earn anything from God.
Why do this? Training our minds to think correctly about the nature of God helps us to see Him. When we don't have the right perspective, we can't see the whole picture. It also helps keep our pride in check. Heaven forbid we get to the point where we believe for a second that we could truly make it without a savior.
A last thought: knowing we cannot earn God's love, we are better at showing that graceful love to those around us. It helps us develop unconditional love - not that we could ever truly attain it this side of heaven. It can also make us more joyful, because people need to be loved unconditionally.
"But if we love each other, God lives in us and His love is brought to full expression in us." I John 4:12
Practice loving unconditionally this week and thank God for showing us the same.
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