Love

So I recently was online looking at tons of different books on sale, everything from what it means to be a man, how to make sure your marriage is good, being good at prayer, the church, etc and so on.  There was a book that I came across to which I read some excerpts, the title of this book caught my eye, anything to do with the love of God and peoples view/pursuit of it I am all over it. 

As I began to read my heart became heavy, here is the reason.  There are many things in life that we are uncertain about, will I have a job tomorrow?  What do people think of me?  How long will my car last?  How much longer will I live?  But the question remains of what does God think of me?  There have been different ideas of what God thinks and I dont intend to "settle" per say the different views here but more so to put my thoughts/experience and what I see as truth in the word of God.  Most importantly for consideration.  Here is my thought, you ready?  Yes?  Hmm....

1. "When will it be settled in our mind and hearts that God loves us?"
2. "Is Gods love conditional to the believer? How about to the unbeliever?"

The reason I ask these two questions is because of what I read in the excerpt I spoke of earlier, its the idea that "If you really love God you would _________".   Now here is where I am coming from with that.  Scripture is clear they will know we are Christians by our love....but wait....for one another.  Let me ask you a question, do you want to love someone who says, "Hey you can't you get it through your head that I did this for you?  Yes you, gosh you are so selfish, I gave everything for you".  If I were to say that for you, what does that bring, guilt?  Condemnation?  For the "love" people!  We love because He first loved us.  It is talked about that many Christians are stagnant, lukewarm, etc.  Then its going into a stint of these people are just selfish people who need to own up to their own sin and just realize that they are sinful.  Now hear me on this, sin is sin, Christ was crucified for our sin, to pay the debt, sin is serious business.  But here is the clincher for me, If I truly understand Gods love for me, I wont want to sin or be drawn to the things of this world.  But I can't tell another Christian, "why can't you get it?" "are you stupid?".  The harsh words of Jesus came towards the Religious of the day, not those who were stuck in sin or going about their lives the ho hum life.  It was to those who thought they had it all together.

I am  still processing through alot of this, but there is one thing that we MUST believe Christians, its the FACT that God loves us, only God can convince us of that.  We can't pound it into each others heads, we can't convince ourselves so we can act better so it proves we "love" God.  How does God feel about you right now?  Are you at peace with the FACT that Jesus Christ died for you and if you have put your trust in Him as your savior, your Lord, your complete payment that He loves you 100% and is pleased with you?  At some point we must stop looking at the past saying if only, Jesus took care of the if only, you dont stand condemned, for if we stand condemned than Christ's sacrifice is null.  Yet it is not, true freedom is that we are convinced by Almighty God himself of His love for us, and that frees us up to obey him in truth and in power.  God wants to relate to you, he wants to reveal himself to you, He longs for you to know three words that shake the gates of hell.  "I LOVE YOU".