I attend a weekly online women’s Bible Study meeting hosted by one of my mentors and she inspired me to put this together. 

A few weeks ago, we talked about the nature of God, His love for us as His children and why we should live as people who are deeply loved by the Almighty.

 As we studied together, we were reminded that God’s love is pure and holy. There is nothing evil or false about His divine love for us. His love is who He is and His motive for loving us is unconditional. His intentions are pure. There are no strings attached to it. 

We were also reminded that God’s love is perfect. It is not flawed; and the perfect nature of God’s love drives away every negative fear in our heart. We can come into His presence with confidence because we know that there is nothing in and about Him that we should be afraid of. WE ARE PERFECTLY LOVED BY A PERFECT GOD! 

As we talked and encouraged ourselves, I took a few minutes to reflect on our response to God’s love, as His children. We know He loves us and in so many ways, we have had encounters and experiences that have proved to us that this love is real and it exists; however, because we cannot see God physically, we have unconsciously replaced His love with the love we expect from the “important” people in our lives. We constantly crave for their approval and until we receive the accolades from these people, we are never convinced that we are loved. 

Let me explain. 

There are people in our lives that we honour and respect – our parents/guardians, our church leaders, our bosses at work, our spouses, even our friends and peers. We believe they have earned the right to occupy a significant place in our lives; and yes, in some cases, we may have judged correctly. We push ourselves and work hard to ensure that we perform at the level they expect us to; whether it is in our behaviour, career progression, spiritual growth or our commitment to the relationship that exists between us and them. Despite our efforts, we keep feeling unloved and unaccepted until they have put a checkmark of their acceptance or approval on our performance; and when they don’t, we lose our peace. Sometimes, it is because we lack self-confidence; sometimes, it is because of how you perceive that person. 

You see, some human beings are difficult to please. Some have extremely high standards about how life should be and they expect the same from everyone else in their circle. Some are perfectionists. Some are critics by default. Some are demand-experts. They keep asking and taking from you until you are burnt out. Some are not easily impressed. You can never get it right with them. 

If we are connected to someone in this category and we choose to give them the authority to determine what we should do, when we should do it and how we should do it, we are likely to struggle with accepting this truth that God’s love for us and His approval of us is enough. We will constantly keep seeing and analyzing God’s love for us through their lens. 

We know that God’s love is perfect; however, He is not waiting for us to be perfect before He can love us. In the Bible, it is written that while we were still sinners, God proved His love for us by sending His son to die for our sins. We do not need to perform in order to earn or receive His love. It existed before we showed up. It was there before we became aware of it and it will remain forever. It is an everlasting love. 

If we know and are convinced that this love has come to stay, then we need to resist that urge to constantly pursue and win the approval of other people. 

We need to stop trying to make an impression on people who are human and have their own internal struggles, just like us. 

We need to stop waiting on their checkmark before we accept that we are loved. 

We need to fix our minds on this truth, remind ourselves daily, live and bask in this revelation;

THAT WE ARE PERFECTLY LOVED BY A PERFECT GOD! 

We need to keep living for Him and doing His will as He has instructed us. At some point, the world will catch up; but even if they don’t, we can still choose to hold firmly to this revelation; 

THAT WE ARE PERFECTLY LOVED BY A PERFECT GOD! 

His love is enough. More than enough.