Peace for Christian Perfectionists by Faith ChangSampel

“Jesus loves me, this I know” goes the classic children’s chorus—but there’s knowing, and there’s knowing. “I know that God loves me,” a Christian perfectionist may say, “but I don’t feel it.” Why would God love me, messed up and broken as I am?

God answers this question—kind of—in Deuteronomy. Why did God choose the Israelites to be his treasured possession? Not because of their greatness but “because the Lord loves you.”

In this way, God’s love is different than how we usually experience love in the world. We understand love as affection kindled and sustained because of something in the beloved—“I love you because of how you love me” or “I love you because you’re beautiful and special” or “I love you because you’re mine.”

There’s nothing wrong with love that is awakened because of something lovely in another person. But God’s love is not like that. There is no explanation for God’s love outside of itself because his love for us originates from within himself. As one theologian put it, “Nothing lies in back of this love.”

God loves us because he loves us. As much as this may feel like a non-answer, it is the answer we need. There is freedom and rest to be found in being loved with a love we did not earn because it is a love that we cannot lose.

You are lavishly loved with a love that predates the foundations of the world. Nothing, believer—not your past regrets, not your present weakness, not your future sin—nothing in all creation, yourself included, will ever separate you from this love. God’s love is his to freely give, and he has chosen to set his affections upon you.

Gracious God,

Thank you for forgiving all my sins and healing me, for redeeming my life from the pit and crowning me with love and compassion. You satisfy my desires with good things and renew me day by day. From every possible view of my life, I see grace upon grace.

Lord, you have been so good to me that I wish I had an offering worthy of you. Yet when I consider what I have, none of it seems enough. Still, in view of your mercy, I am compelled to bring what I have—to offer myself as a living sacrifice.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen