You are a new creation, He has made you brand new. You are who He says you are. And to Him you are beloved, you are precious, you are holy, you are righteous, you are blameless, you are enough. You don’t need to do anything to gain approval from Abba. He approved of you from the foundation of the world. You are the apple of His eye. You are the child He always wanted. You are beautiful, compassionate, tender-hearted, faithful, and kind. You are all these things because He made you so. He made you to be like Him, in His image and likeness. He declared that you are very good from the beginning. He is well pleased with you.

The Father is well pleased with you, and requires nothing of you but to rest in His love. You could never write another word, you could not give another penny, you could never keep another feast day, and He would love you just the same. He loves you, not because of the things you do or don’t do, but because He loves. Love does not live at the expense of others. Love is not self-serving. This is the premise from which we must read everything from Scripture, especially the words of Jesus. Jesus came to show us the Father’s love.

The Father much like the father in the prodigal son parable has been misunderstood. The Father of fathers, the best one of all, has been rejected by His sons. They have not seen His goodness, His unconditional love, His mercy, His generosity. Humanity has either gone away from Him and lived a hedonistic lifestyle or we’ve placed burdens on ourselves that He never required of us–seeing ourselves as no better than servants, when He has always loved us and seen us as sons. “My son you have always been with me and all I have is yours.”

This is a Father who loves and does not pick favorites. He has never withheld anything from the eldest son; the eldest son never considered himself worthy enough to ask. Do you see? It’s not how God perceives us, it’s how we’ve perceived ourselves–that was the dysfunction we got from Adam, a dysfunction that Jesus came to correct.

You are to die for! You are worth laying down His own life in order to show you the extent of His love. He has placed no other burden, no command but to Shema! Hear with your heart all the love He has for you; believe and be transformed in the renewing of your mind by this truth that He has said about you! Then you will be free to love as you have been loved–not the love that expects love in return, but love for its own sake.