Be sure to check out the 2nd edition of my book! Untangling the Mess: Challenging Hurtful Messages about God’s Love is now available in paperback and as an eBook. There is also a brand new Study Guide to explore the book’s themes.
We’ve made a mess of God’s love! In an over-zealous effort to convince people that they need to become Christian, need to accept Jesus as their personal Savior, need to “get right with the Lord,” or need to be baptized before they can participate fully in a faith community, we’ve made something beautiful into a complicated mess.
It’s time to untangle the mess by challenging the hurtful messages about God’s love. These messages have created knots that limit how we experience a loving God.
These knots were formed when we’ve:
- viewed scripture from the place of “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”
- made God’s love dependent on what a person says or does
- held a narrow understanding of God which limits how God is experienced
- overemphasized the brokenness of humanity and creation, and
- relied on theological understandings and religious practices, which create obstacles to experiencing God’s love.
Untying these knots releases the tension that causes pain and heartache for many who have been or are on the receiving end of hurtful messages and manipulative tactics. By untying these knots, we make space to experience the fullness of God’s abundant love.
Friend, you can rest in the certainty of God’s love which is extravagant, encompassing, and empowering because God adores you. You are loved. You are worthy. God accepts you just as you are. God doesn’t need or require you to do or say anything to prove your love for God because God has already proven God’s love for you. God didn’t wait for you to become perfect, didn’t wait for you to confess your sins or profess your faith before falling in love with you. Instead, God takes the initiative, loves you completely, and blesses you with unconditional and steadfast love that will never fail and never be diminished.