Craig T. Owens

I had a couple of questions along the line of “How much do I have to do” in The Q Series yesterday morning. We all have a tendency to want to know how to fill in the blanks of questions like:

• How much time do I have to spend with God to make Him happy?
• How holy do I have to be for God to accept me?
• What do I have to do for God to love me more?
• How much do I have to do to make it to Heaven?

But all of these questions start with a wrong premise. These questions all assume I can do something. If the history of mankind shows us anything, it’s that all of our attempts to build a bridge up to God always falls short.

So—wonder of wonders!—God reached down to us! Jesus gave all so that we could be restored to a relationship with God. And what does He want in return? He wants you! I love this thought from C.S. Lewis:

“For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is ourselves.”

Sometimes we look at ourselves and think, “God wants this?! God wants me?!” In fact, I received another question yesterday that simply asked, “Why does God love us?”

God wants you because He made you to be in relationship with Him. He loves you as if you were the only person on earth to love. Again, consider these wise words from C.S. Lewis—

“We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest ‘well pleased.’ …Because He already loves us He must labor to make us lovable.”

How much do you have to do to receive that love? Just believe that fact that God loves you, that He sent Jesus to pay the price for your forgiveness, and that the Holy Spirit is right now working to draw you into that ‘Divine love’ relationship.

Let me state it simply: God loves you. Will you let His love fill your life?

Check out other questions in our Q Series by clicking here.