Today, I’d like to talk about how you’re God’s Beloved.
Shout it out, “I’m God’s Beloved!”
I believe unless we enshrine 1 John 4:19 at the center of our spirituality, all our Christian strivings will be a frantic effort to gain God’s pleasure and acceptance.
I remember watching a B-movie where a tribe worshipped a volcano. Now if only they chose a sleeping volcano, their life would have been bliss. But no. They chose an active volcano as their god—a volcano that erupted every year. So whenever the volcano was acting up, they presumed that their god was angry. To prevent their god from erupting, they threw their young virgins into the crater—to placate its wrath. When the volcano didn’t erupt, they thought perhaps the virgin wasn’t really a virgin, so to solve the problem, they sacrificed younger and younger girls—until they started sacrificing their babies. All of them. As you can imagine, this tribe never grew big. But the volcano kept erupting anyway.
As crazy as this may sound, some Christians people relate to God in the same way. We feel God is angry at us. And we try to win His favor. His friendship. His approval. His acceptance. Our hope is that if we pray hard enough and do good enough, God will like us.
But let me shout this from the housetops: Even before you do anything good, God already likes you. You’re already His chosen delight. By the mere fact that you exist, your crucified God has already embraced you in His wounds. For while we were still sinners, He died for us. (Romans 5:5)
Unconditional Love
Are you a Mom? Your baby didn’t come out into the world saying, “Hi Mom! I love you. You’re the most beautiful person in the world. What can I do to make you happy? Foot massage? Backrub? Breakfast in bed?”
Not a chance. When your baby was born, he didn’t even know you existed except as his food supply. All he did was cry and pee and poo. Cry and pee and poo. Cry and pee and poo. He was are a crying, peeing, and pooing machine.
Yet you loved him more than yourself.
Oh, did you breastfeed? Do you remember how that little rascal didn’t even care that your nipple was in horrific pain or bleeding—he would have sucked all your blood.
Yet despite not doing anything good for you, you loved your baby. I believe the mother’s love is the nearest thing we can ever have to unconditional love.
And this is a picture of God’s Love for you. Even before you do anything good, you’re already loved. Cherished. Celebrated. Desired.
Tell me: Why do you love God? Why do you pray? Why do you attend the Feast? Why do you go to Mass? I hope your answer is, “Because God loves me!”
Here’s God’s message for you today: “I’m God’s Beloved!”
May your dreams come true,
BO SANCHEZ
P.S. You want to be a millionaire. You want to be truly rich. You want to bless other people. You want to be a channel of God’s blessings. And you will be.
But not overnight.
Friend, I’d like to invite you again to a life-changing seminar that would kick-start your financial success. I want you to be a millionaire, so that you can live life to the fullest, and so that you can become a huge blessing to other people.
Do you want to know how?
