Just Love God

“…He will quiet you with His love…” Zephaniah 3:17

Below that verse in the margins of my Bible are these words written in my own handwriting:

God wants you to have a passion for Him more than He wants you to follow His laws!

The quote is a paraphrase of something St. Augustine said way back in the fourth century: “Love God, and do as you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”

I still remember the day I sat at a church retreat in east Texas in 1995 and carefully wrote down the quote. The reason I remember it so vividly is because those words caused an epiphany, setting me free from a mindset that I had to perform in order to earn God’s love. That day, God quieted something in my soul: a restless anxiety that convinced me I needed to strive in order to be accepted by Him.

Like Augustine, now I realize how completely free I am in Christ. He loves me, and there is nothing I can do (or not do) to change that. His chief desire is simply for me to love Him back. This idea puts a whole new spin on obedience. He wants my love, not my performance. So God’s love is not a reward for my obedience. My obedience is a response to His love.

But sometimes I forget. I go back out into the world that is all about beauty pageants, sales commissions, and stars on a chart, and I become re-convinced that I must earn God’s love. Like a cat with a bird in its mouth, I return, drop my dead works at His feet and full of anxiety ask, “NOW how much do you love me?” And, as always He soothingly replies, “As much as I always have.”

And I find my restless soul once again quieted by His unconditional love.