Pink and Girly / Earning God's Love?

Greetings, friends! It's time for an outfit post. :)

    This outfit was worn to a baby shower I attended last week. Baby and bridal showers are the perfect times to pull out our girliest duds, don't you think? My outfit features two new ultra-feminine pieces. The bow-shaped belt has become a fast favorite of mine as it spruces up blah outfits, pulls together cute looks, and covers not-so-pretty waistbands. It went well with this beautiful handmade floral midi skirt that I picked up at a yard sale. This skirt is downright pretty, and looked great with a pink t-shirt that I hardly ever wear. After adding my trusty flats, I was all ready to go celebrate with friends!

T-shirt ~ Thrifted; Belt ~  ; Skirt ~ Yard Sale; Flats ~ Target

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  I have been holding a wrong view of God. It's nothing new - now and then I go through phases where a certain way of feeling about Him creeps in, without my purposing it. It's never a conscious effort, but it quietly affects the way I live.
  This time I was under the false impression that I had to work to keep God's love. Sins that I struggled with made me feel as if He didn't love me as much as when I was doing well. It's true, sin in our lives is bad for our relationship with the Lord, but does it change His love for us?

   The answer to this question can be found by answering another question - did I have to work to earn God's love in the first place? Certainly not!  "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God...", says Ephesians. The only thing we as humans need to do to have salvation is turn away from living life on our own and accept the gift that Christ has offered to us. In fact, Christ's sacrifice  was evidence of God's love to me before I even received it. (Romans 5:8).  My salvation had nothing to do with my working my way to merit God's love and grace.

   If God loved me unconditionally while I was still without Jesus, His love for me wouldn't suddenly become conditional when I accepted the gift of salvation. True, I now have the Holy Spirit in me to help and convict me, but while I'm still in the flesh the Lord knows that my frame is still dust and pities me as a loving Father (Psalm 103:13). He desires for me to obey Him and do what is right, and though He may be saddened when I stumble, His love for me does not change. Romans 5 tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God - not even ourselves.
   There is freedom in having a right view of God. I have freedom to fall, and then get back up again while relying on His strength. I have freedom to follow a God whose love never lets me go rather than a God who I become less important to the moment I sin. I have freedom to love Him because he first loved me instead of it being the other way around (1 John 4:19). I have freedom to accept His forgiveness for my sin and move on, because I know that obeying Him is a way of pleasing Him rather than appeasing Him... Do you have that freedom?

Have you ever struggled with having a wrong view of God? 

What helped you/ is helping you to overcome it?

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God

 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

~Romans 8:38-39