just_because

Just Because!, by Randall D. Kittle

Probably my least favorite word growing up was the word “because.” I seemed to hear it often from my dad and constantly from my mom as the rationale for the things they expected me to do.
Any questioning as to why I should do something was answered with, “Because that’s the polite thing to do” or “Because that is how you’d want to be treated” or my least favorite of all, “Just because I said so!” I soon found “because” to be the most frustrating word in all the English language.

Years later, when I was a parent, however, it wasn’t long until I began using the dreaded “because” myself as we began instructing our daughters. Somehow, the word seemed a lot more palatable as an adult. Perspective had redeemed this word making it instructive, useful, and often appropriate.

God Loves … Because
As a born-again believer, I no longer find the word tolerable. I find it delightful! Why? Because God loves us not because of what we have done or what we’ve refrained from doing, He loves us just because He loves us.

This is exactly what the Lord told Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you …” Basically, God declares in this passage to the children of Israel, “I love you just because I have chosen to love you.” They hadn’t done anything special or outstanding to deserve His love. He just chose to love them.

It is the same with you and me. Long before we ever set out affection on the Lord, God had chosen us to love. He tells us this in Ephesians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” As a born-again believer, you need to let the truth of this sink into your heart.
Before you were born… before the earth was formed
Before the sun marked day or night … before the Lord created light
God knew you … God loved you … God treasured you in His heart!

It is so important for us to comprehend God’s heart on this, so allow me to give you an illustration. Being the youngest of three boys and having no other relatives living nearby, I always felt very uncomfortable around babies and small children. But when my wife gave birth to our oldest daughter, Anna, and I held her in my arms, my heart connected to her in a wonderful way. Being a new father ignited something in my heart; I couldn’t believe how much I loved her. The joy I experienced and the love I felt for her was overwhelming.

As I thought about this later, I realized that at that moment when I had felt so enraptured by Anna she hadn’t done even one thing to deserve the depths of the love I felt for her. In fact, if anything, she had done the opposite. So far, all she had done was cause my wife a great deal of pain and cost me a night’s sleep (not to mention costing us hundreds of dollars). But the facts remain unchanged. We had chosen to have a child … and she was richly and deeply loved.

It is the same with the Lord. You and I have never done anything to earn or deserve God’s love, and yet He loves us more than I could ever love Anna. If you are a born-again believer, the truth is that God loves you just because He has chosen you to love. There is nothing you can do to earn His love, and the best part is you don’t have to because He has already set His love upon you. Never forget, beloved, that you are loved and treasured by the Lord!