God is Love : All the Time.

[Behold]

Many believers do not enjoy their Christianity as they should because they have a misunderstanding of God, regarding how to deal with Him, and regarding how He deals with them.....you.

There are many born again Saints whose entire idea of fellowship with God is not friendship, is not a love relationship, is not family...is not DADDY.. but its a sort of a : "how do i make myself worthy enough for God to be nice to me and accept me and maybe one day answer my prayers.". ????

"How can i perform enough so that God will bless me, and maybe even help me today" ?????

This is a sort of mild performance anxiety issue, where the believer has not been able to accept or believe that God loves them because God is LOVE and that is what He does, because that is who He is......in reality, and for Eternity.
God is Love., And God loves you.

Listen.... you believe that Jesus is kind, loving, compassionate, forgiving, sweet, beautiful, ..... always merciful...........don't you?
Did you ever read in the NT even once, when Jesus didn't help or heal or love someone who asked, or needed it?
Listen..
Jesus said...."if you have seen me, you have SEEN THE FATHER".

So, when a person, a believer has the wrong perception of God.... they are forever straining at the straps, performing, stressing, repenting, confessing, ever seeking to DO enough, for LONG enough, to be good enough.... so that God can accept them., and they never will feel they are good enough....

And truly, this performance based Christian anxiety mentality is a straight jacket of misery. And if you are wearing it, i want to offer you a verse to meditate on so that you get a True Vision of the Always Merciful, Eternally Compassionate, LOVING God,.. who saved you, and not because you earned it or deserve it... but only because "God so loved YOU" that He sent Beautiful Jesus just for you to save you.

Listen, Goodness exists only because God exists.
Love exists, only because God exists.
Compassion, Health, Joy, Peace, HOPE.....these only exist because GOD exists, as they are a part of GOD's Divine Nature.
Reader, .,.
Always realize that even if you were the only person in the world, God still would have sent His Beautiful Messiah Jesus to the Cross just to bring YOU home to His Kingdom and into His heart and Family..
Jesus died : for YOU.
Thats a fact and PROOF of God's eternal unconditional love for you.
its the TRUTH..

Look at this verse... and see the real God, your Father.

John 16:24

"and hitherto have you asked nothing in my name : ASK and you shall receive, that your JOY MAY BE FULL.""

Listen,....

God says to YOU.... to YOU>....."what are you waiting for?.....ask Me.... im your Father.....I love you... I sent my Son for you....and i want to give to you my daily blessings so that your joy may be full everyday..so that your heart may be at peace and satisfied, always."...

Now, did you notice what you are to perform to earn this fullness of Joy that God wants to give you?

Answer.) = nothing .

You dont earn it.
And the reason is, .. God's love for you is not a performance based rewards system. He is not up there taking notes and awarding and subtracting reward points, and if you finally do enough and earn enough heavenly points, you finally get a blessing or a prayer answered.
That is not God.....That is not CHRISTianity.
That is not how God's love works, or functions.... Yet many believers are working to try to get God's help., working to try to get God's acceptance....Repenting and confessing to try to be "OK" with God..... working to try get God to love them....and they never feel it, ever.. And that is because God's love is FREELY given, not earned.
Its not worked for, or earned...Its RECEIVED, just like the "gift of Salvation." and "The Gift of Eternal Life".

"GOD IS LOVE"... It what He is....Its what He does.., and He loves you so very very much, reader.

You noticed in that previous verse... the reward is = "that your JOY might be full"... = IS The Blessing.
That is how God LOVES. "Blessing". "Favor".... "JOY".. "WISDOM".... "Peace"... '"Miracles".
God wants all this for you. This is How He loves you.... He loves by GIVING and GIVING, and never is this based on your performance. Its always and only based on God's nature.... As God is a giver... God is LOVE......... God loves YOU.

Believe it.
Receive it.
Always Rest in God's love.

 

[Brakelite]

What is love? Is it solely to be taken advantage of for ones own pleasures and freedom of suffering? The failure to understand love, what it truly is and what it will do, is the great problem of humanity. Love is grossly misunderstood and people, who are doing all sorts of sinful nonsense, will often say to those who seek to restrain them, "If you love me why can't you just be happy for me?" Or "if you loved me then you would just let me do such and such..." These fail to comprehend that true love seeks to correct. Now God Himself is love and it is written of Him:

"For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth (Prov 3:12)

C.S. Lewis has given us an excellent literary gem in the following quote:

“Love may, indeed, love the beloved when her beauty is lost: but not because it is lost. Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal. Love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemish in the beloved… Of all powers he forgives most, but he condones least: he is pleased with little, but demands all.” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

Yet the correction of love becomes odious when the heart is set on its own way rather the the way of Lord. Again, it is written:

"Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die. (Prov 15:10)

This hatred of correction is why Israel persecuted her own prophets. They wanted to walk in sinful ways in peace, without their consciences bothering them, but the prophets, manifesting the love of God, sought to correct them. Yet Israel said, more often than not said to them:

"Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. (Isa 30:11)

The sad reality of this course, like the prodigal son, is that it is actually a self-inflicted basterdization against God. It is a rejection of Him as Father and choosing another in His place. Notice what Christ calls us in the following injunction.

"Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. 34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. 36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. (Prov 8:32-26)

To hate Jesus is to love death. It is a strange thing but many really do love death. Whereas the God of love and life would have them to be His children, they choose instead the fallen cherub and death. Yet those who love Jesus know that, in Him, they are children of God and, as such, they receive the correction of the Lord. Oh, perhaps not with joy but they realize that God does it because He loves them and wants what is best for them. They trust God, even under His rebuke. They realize that this very fact, a Divine correction, reveals their true status as His sons and daughters.

"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (Heb 12)

"Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; 8 Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; 9 And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him (Heb 12:7-9)

 

[Behold]

What is love? Is it solely to be taken advantage of for ones own pleasures and freedom of suffering?

Playing the Martyr, is actually self love, not God's Love. @Brakelite

So, here is the situation.
See if you can understand it.

For God so LOVED,.. John 3:16.... and now that we have received This Love = who is Jesus.. ........... we are to present ourselves to God, by serving God, because He First Loved Us.

1 John 4:10​

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10 """""Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."""""​