Getting God Wrong

When my wife, Linda, was young, she believed that whenever something bad happened to her, it was God getting back at her for something she had done wrong. And every time she did something wrong, she’d be nervous, waiting for something bad to happen to her.

I remember her telling me about this early in our relationship. By that time, she knew theologically that it wasn’t true. But she still struggled with it. Like God is up in heaven with a club, waiting for us to mess up so that He can whack us back in line.

Again, she knew that wasn’t true in her head, but she struggled with it in her heart. It wasn’t until she became a mother that she felt released from that awful way of thinking. Because if we, as parents who are sinners, would not treat our own children that way, why would we believe that our perfect heavenly Father would?

Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 NLT, “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

Jesus told Nicodemus that He did not come into the world to condemn us but to save us (John 3:17).

God is not an angry despot looking to slap you upside the head every time you mess up. Jesus absorbed the penalty of your sin when He went to the cross. He did that so you could be forgiven.

He’s not an angry despot. He’s a loving Father. He loves you more than anyone on earth. More than your parents. More than your kids. More than anyone.

And His love, His forgiveness, cannot be earned. There’s nothing you could ever do to make Him love you more. There’s nothing you could ever do to make Him love you less.

In Scripture, it’s called grace—undeserved favor. What we do or don’t deserve has nothing to do with God’s goodness to us. He loves us because He does. And when we get an understanding of that grace that God offers, it can’t help but change our approach to Him, as well as each other.

I love the line in the old worship song, How He Loves: “If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.”

Linda knows that she had it wrong as a kid. And now she feels it as well. Instead of every bad thing being God getting back at us, every good thing is a gift from our loving heavenly Father (James 1:17).

And because of His greatest gift, His Son, we have eternity in heaven to look forward to!