Do I deserve to be loved?

Do you/do I deserve to be loved. That’s a hard question to ask. And there is
a short answer that needs a longer explanation. My only request, if you begin
reading please read until the end. I would hate for you to miss the importance
of this question. So let’s get to it.

Do you/do I deserve to be loved? Short answer, no. It’s not an easy answer
to hear. I want to think that I deserve to be loved. I want to think that I am
worthy of love because I am kind, or generous or loving to others or any other
awesome character trait. And as I type this and think it over my own hackles
get raised and I want to lay out why I demand that love; I deserve it and here
is how I want it to look. We all desire to be loved and desiring it makes us
feel entitled to that love. We attach a great many feelings to it, so much so
that this post may bring up strong feelings as you read through it. We say,
“I should be loved because… I am worthy of love because… I want to be
loved because…” We feel defensive if anyone should tell us that we don’t
deserve to be loved.

One thing that God been working in my life right now is to ask the question,
“if I am defensive, what is the reason”?  As I think about my feelings regarding how I
deserve to be loved, I have to ask, what is it that makes me feel defensive
about that answer and is it true? I have to look at absolute truth to see what
is true about me and my deserving of love.

God’s word is very clear on this subject. Psalm 51:5 Surely I was
sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. And, Ephesians
2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in
which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and
of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in
those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among
them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
There are so many more scriptures that point to the fact we are by nature not
good people. We are sinful people deserving only of God’s judgement. We are
sinful and broken.  How about Jeremiah
17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can
understand it?

If we are really willing to look beyond the “feelings” we have
about ourselves, we see that we really aren’t good people. Think about the parts
we hide or try to cover up, hoping no one ever finds out, that just confirms
that we are sinful. I am sinful.  It’s
there. I cannot make myself clean. I cannot create in myself purity. I am full
of sin and I follow my own desires that deserve wrath not love. Now if I ended
this post here, it might possibly the most hopeless blog ever written. But
there is hope!

I am hopeless without someone who can heal this broken, twisted, sinful
heart of mine. I need someone to step into the gap. One of my favorite verses
is Romans 5:6,8 You see, at just the right time, when
we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly… ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the
craziest part about real love. God knew that we were sinful and beyond hope. He
knew that we couldn’t heal ourselves. He knew the only answer was one who could
stand in the gap. One who was clean and perfect. Jesus Christ was the only one
who was able to stand in the gap for me and for you.

When I place my trust in Christ to stand in the gap for me, I get to take on
His nature and He takes my sin away. I know it doesn’t seem fair that He takes
all my yuck and I get all the beautiful stuff but that’s how deep His love is!
I don’t deserve it, but I have been given love anyway. My broken sinful,
stained heart has nothing to give to anyone. I have no way of earning love or
being worthy of love. But God, in His never ending love, overwhelming mercy and
matchless grace provided a way for my heart to have healing and to experience
love.

In fact, 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. I am only
capable of giving love because I have been loved by God first. Before I had
done anything, God loved me and because He loved me, I have been given the
invitation to live in that love and express that love. When I accept that
invitation and I choose to make Christ the most important thing in my life, I
get unending love poured into me so that I can pour it out on others.  1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was
made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that
we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God
so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

God has overwhelmingly given us a gift we don’t deserve.  That is grace. Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because
of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when
we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by
grace you have been saved.  We were dead in our sin.  I don’t know about you, but I have never seen
anyone who is able to bring themselves back to life.  It’s not possible.  But God gave us the gift of life and love so
much so that, even when we were without hope, He made a way for us to be alive!  Can I get a Hallelujah?  This is such great news.  I do not deserve to be loved and yet, God
loves me and loved me first, while I was still dead in my sin.  And if you should ever think that God’s love
may run out, I encourage you to ponder Romans 8:35,37-39 Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁷ No, in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am
sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord.  This the gospel message.  We
have good news.  We can know the overwhelming,
never ending, faithful love of God.  It’s
a free gift to us when we choose to place our hope and trust in Jesus Christ
and His resurrection power.  It is after
all why we were created. Revelations 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord
and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things
and by your will they existed and were created.”