What To Do When You Feel Unworthy of God’s Love

We all have days when we feel like utter failures.

Perhaps nothing seems to be going right in our lives, or perhaps, in a moment of weakness, we really blew it and did something we knew to be wrong.

Sometimes the lack of achievement can be a source of such feelings — we may feel that we aren’t doing enough, or somehow aren’t enough in and of ourselves.

And if our thoughts aren’t enough to deal with, the enemy loves to add his own by reminding us of past failures — including ones long forgiven and forgotten. Even Martin Luther, the giant of The Reformation, was not immune to these tactics but confessed that the devil would assail him on a nightly basis with a laundry list of his faults (Thunderstorm in Church by Louise A. Vernon).

Whatever the source, feelings of unworthiness will visit from time to time, like unwanted salesmen at the door. They invade our thinking and steal our joy, particularly when we mentally equate them with not deserving God’s love.

On those happy occasions when we feel on top of the world and when all is going well, our feelings may not be so traitorous. On those days, it’s easy (or easier) to think we are worthy of love and acceptance, isn’t it?

The Trap of Performance-Based Thinking

This is performance-based thinking, and we must strive to weed it out every time it crops up.

Why is that?

It is because God’s love for us has never been based on our personal performance. “…While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8, NIV).

God chose, before time began, to adopt us into His family with full knowledge of everything we would ever do or fail to do. None of those things affected His choice to love us before we were even born. God’s love was never based on our worth in the first place.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8) and His love for us isn’t going to suddenly start being based on our performance when that’s not the way it began. We can’t impress God with our goodness — our most righteous acts are so far from His standard of holiness that they are as “filthy rags” (Is. 64:6) in His sight.

The Cross Changes Everything

The only impressive thing about us is Jesus. When we are in Christ, clothed not in our own filthy rags but in the robes of righteousness provided for us by Christ, we can stand before Him unashamed.

Friends, the Cross changes everything.

Our new position is that of being accepted and loved; there we can stand in full assurance.

What, then, should we do when assailed by feelings of unworthiness?

Embrace them, my friend. Wm. R. Newell so eloquently states in Romans, Verse by Verse:

“To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret.”

The key to that great secret is a laying down of one’s pride: of saying, “I have nothing to offer You, and I can never be worthy of your love.”

But when God looks at we who are in Christ, He sees not our lack but the sufficiency of the finished work of the Cross.

So which is it? Are we really unworthy or are we worth loving?

The answer is yes — to both. We, born after Adam into a sinful and fallen state, are unworthy of God’s love. But if we are in Christ, accepting His sacrifice on our behalf, then He has made us worthy.

So the next time you feel unworthy, smile. Remember that God chose you before time began. He loves you and accepts you because of Christ’s work on the Cross. Your position of beloved acceptance is not going to change.

Believe, and consent to be loved while unworthy.

Loving Him,

Christine