The other day I heard that old Bonnie Raitt song… “I can’t make you love me if you don’t…”  For so long I related to that song – chasing lost loves (most of them only lost in my head since love that never happened can’t really be lost! haha) and being alone. Such an empty place.

And then I started thinking about the nature of God’s love for me – for all of us – and I realized that His love is the exact opposite of that song – that He loves me no matter what! That I can’t make Him not love me even if I try.

I spent a lot of years not praying because I ‘didn’t want God to know where I was’…. I didn’t really think through why I was hiding…. whether I thought there would be punishment, or disappointment (God the Father after all, so He would be a disappointed parent, right?). Or maybe He would make me behave? Who knows….

Somehow I had completely missed the nature of His love. I thought I had to get good, or be presentable, before I could present myself to Him. You know…. “here I am God!! Here was my problem, and here’s how I fixed it, and now I’m perfect aren’t you glad??”

Then I heard the statement that rocked my perception of things: We are not worthy of God’s love because WE say we are, we are worthy because HE says we are!

If my worthiness depended on how I felt about myself I would be unlovable a lot of the time – but God takes that away in one simple concept – worthiness is not up to me.

So… now… everybody sing!!! I can’t make you NOT love me….. la la la…..