Many have said that God loves them no matter what, or God accepts them for what and who they are. Do these people who believe this know exactly what they are saying and why?

It is true that God loves us but the key to understand what he loves and what he does not resides in what he created and made. When people look if God loves them, they see it from their personal perspective and not from the eternal one God has. A person does not have to be like a god to have some understanding of what God loves from his eternal perspective.

When God the Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to give us the opportunity to salvation into his kingdom where he resides, that says God the Father is asking us to return to his kingdom. His kingdom is a place of perfection not imperfection, of incorruption not corruption. We can reside with him, but not as we are now, living in corruption, so God the Father set conditions by which we must abide in order we can reside with him.

The scriptures clearly set these conditions out. Faith and obedience are the two main ones. To have faith in God the Father is in spirit and in truth and to obey all his commandments, which his Son Jesus Christ has given. Without proper faith and obedience, no matter how much we believe God loves us, we cannot enter into his kingdom.

Doing our best for God becomes important and establishes the ground by which we stand and move toward God. Without this, how can we abide in God’s will?

One of the things people tend to do is self-justify. Claiming that their lack of faith or lack of obedience is acceptable because God loves them no matter what. God does love us all, after all he is our Father who made us, yet God also loves us to obey him because failure to obey removes us from him and no matter how God loves us, our free choice to excuse ourselves from our responsibilities to him will not save us. As God teaches, grace is never at the expense of justice and justice falls to us when we disobey. God is a loving God AND he is a just God as well. That is what makes God what he is and to be less than this removes him from his Godhood. God loves us, but he cannot be less than what he is, so as we make justification to our failings by saying God loves us none the less is telling God we will not do our best for him and expect him to be less than what he is to accommodate our unwillingness to be the best.

Ah, to be the best. Is that not what any good parent wants of his or her children, for them to be the best?

Sure, if any of you have become parents and have children, when you see your child less than what they can be, making themselves lower or more idle in heart and mind, how does that feel to you? I am sure many good parents, however loving they are to their child, would grieve at seeing their child being less than what they can be or cutting themselves short of what they can have or achieve. We would not be a good parent otherwise.

Doing our best then, is to mean to do and be our best. In the act of faith and obedience, there must be perseverance, patience, sureness, consistency, integrity, honesty and honour. All these things and more like them make up what we must be for God, in order for us to be and do our best.

How would your relationship with your family or even with your spouse be like if you were not your best? Even in hard times, struggles, down times, to endure and do good always is being your best. How would your spouse feel if you were not your best? This goes along with self-esteem that I spoke of before, to do and present yourself as the best you can be. Your spouse, in turn should do the same for you, it works both ways. If you chose to let yourself go, not only in appearance, but also in act and attitude, what would your spouse feel like? Would he or she not be grieved and disappointed to see the intentional act of letting oneself go? Sure, the spouse would or should be loving, patient, etc, but he or she will experience some disappointment would they not?

As God the Father is our parent, he made us and gave us great gifts called abilities and aptitudes. He wants us to use our “talents” fully, not being foolish and wasteful with them and to do so means to always be our best at any time. How we are with God will be how we are with our family or spouse. How we are with our spouse or family, we are with God. There is no separation between them. You are what you are in all cases. Remember this has nothing to do with being prideful. To do our best does not involve pride, it involves goodness, humbleness and modesty.

Do your best for God as you would for your family or spouse. Do your best for your spouse as you would be for God. Both love you, but should that give justification to be less than what you are and can be for yourself and them?

To do our best should not be a lot of effort, else you are then struggling with something else that needs to be addressed. It should not take a lot of effort, only a good effort. Consider the example of how a small act of kindness can have a great effect. It took little effort, yet it took a good effort. A good effort does not necessarily mean a lot, it does means an effort that is good and true.

Something to think about.

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