Worthless rotten sinners?

In Evangelical circles, we often hear we are worthless, suggesting we are unworthy of God's love. Is this true? It depends on what we mean.

If we were worthless, why would God send his Son - the Son who the Father holds in highest regard and of utmost value; the Son of his infinite love and affection - to set aside his infinite glory and take upon himself our just judgment? And to also assign to us his perfect faithfulness and righteousness?

The very fact that God the Father was willing to sacrifice someone of infinite worth (his only begotten Son) says something of our worth, does it not? God must have felt we were worth it or he wouldn't have gone to such radical measures to restore us to Himself.

Can we be of great worth and actually worth (worthy of) his love while completely undeserving of it at the same time? Are we splitting hairs? Let's see. 

We in no way deserve a restored relationship with God. We regularly tell God by our actions and attitude to go "pound sand." It should be abundantly clear there is nothing lovely or deserving about this. 

The necessity of grace (a gift) in itself says we can never do enough or be good enough to earn God's love and therefore we can and never will earn the right to participate in God's uninhibited and unfettered love. But His Son can! Without God's intervention and provision, we are toast.

It is not until we acknowledge and believe this (a matter of the heart, not our conduct) that we can receive and experience God's love. The depth to which we believe these things to be true is the degree and depth to which we will experience them to be true. 

But this is very different than saying we are unworthy or not worth God acting in love toward us and on our behalf. 

Are we actually worthy of God acting on our behalf? If so why? Is it because of something we have done? No! It has to do with who we are, and who God has made us to be. This has nothing to do with what we do for or by ourselves.

Why are we of such great value to God? Because we are like God. We are God's image-bearers, by God's own doing and therefore highly ¹valued by God. Would not God value His image in us? We, after all, are the only created beings who are like God. We alone can receive God's love and return his love in a way (the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit give and receive it among themselves) that all the rest of his creation cannot. This brings him joy and the honor and glory he rightfully deserves, like nothing else in creation can. But this is God's doing, not ours. He made us this way, in his image, we didn't (click here for more discussion).

Psa 100:3  Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Our attempts to be in right standing with God through our independent efforts are worthless or worse yet are as "²filthy rags." But we are not worthless.

To become worthless, we had to have worth, to begin with. So what made us worthless? Our not conducting ourselves as the image-bearers God created us to be i.e. not living to and for God's glory and honor and loving Him with everything we are and have as we were designed to.

Rom 3:12  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; (why?---->) no one does good, not even one."

Is being in God's image enough? 

Being in God's image alone, however, is inadequate to restore us back to God because we rebelled and rejected his design for us and our original status. Being in His image means we have the capacity to love and honor God as He rightly deserves, but this is not actual loving. Thus requiring God to restore us back to fellowship with him by doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, i.e. by removing the consequences of our not loving God as we ought and were designed to. In the place of our unrighteous distrust of God - along with all its consequences - He offers us his righteousness as a gift i.e. by and through grace.

So there is nothing we can do to earn God's love, ever. His love was and is totally undeserved yet we are absolutely worth it in God's eyes or He wouldn't have done it.

Some other links that look at different aspects of this are as follows. 

Our worth based on what?

The most valuable values us 

Lovable vs lovely

Hard wired for greatness

Created for glory

God's love is based on who or what?

Our worth, God's glory

Giving and receiving glory

Why in God's name does he love us?

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¹Remember after God created everything he said it was good. After he created man he said it was very good. God values his creation and we are the pinnacle of that creation.

²How filthy? This refers to the rags used during a woman's menstrual cycle. Though some - i.e. the translators of the original language - try to candy-coat how repulsive our efforts to make ourselves righteous in God's eyes are, He does not. 

Our problem: the law or unbelief?

Rom 3:20  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

God's law tells us how we are designed to live, i.e. if we live according to the law, we will experience the life God created and designed us for. This is a good thing, not bad. Therefore, the law too is good. The law is simply God's operations manual for how mankind can best function according to his design and, therefore, to his optimal capacity, bringing the greatest honor to God and drawing others to him. 

But in order for us to live according to the law, we must believe it is given by God for our good. So the problem isn't the law per se, it's our unbelief. We don't trust God, so we are unwilling to obey God and his directions for us. We believe our way is better than His. 

Because we have no faith in God, we have no faith in his directions (the law) for us either.

As a result, the law actually reveals to us how we don't trust God; how we have rebelled and continue to rebel from believing God is our Creator, director, rightful owner, sustainer, provider, lover, caregiver, protector; the all-wise, all-powerful, always present, always loving, all benevolent, beautiful God.

If we knew and believed God was all of this for us and more -- i.e. exactly who he says he is -- doing as He says; following His direction; and obeying the law would be no problem.

Unbelief/distrust is our problem, not the law.

The heart of the law brings all of this out most clearly.

Jesus answered, "The most important (commandment) is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 

The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mar 12:29-31

So are we good or worthless?

Rom 3:12  All have turned aside; together, they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

We are not worthless, but we become worthless when we don't do good.

"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Jesus. Luk 14:34,35

We can do good because we are created in God's image. But because of our disconnection from God, i.e. our rebellious distrust/unbelief, we cannot do good for we were never designed to operate without God, separated from his love for us that empowers us to be loving.

We can not love as we were designed to love because we have disconnected from the source of love. We are not the source of love, God is. Love comes from God to us, and out to others. We inturn are empowered to love others, because we are loved.

Hard wired for greatness

Reducing people to something ¹less than human — such as holding someone as a political or emotional prisoner — isn't tolerated long by those being abused - particularly if they have a strong belief in their own worth/dignity. 

Why? Since we are image-bearers of the One who is of infinite worth, we can not remain long in a state of being treated as worthless i.e. treated without dignity (unless we have lost complete hope of finding relief). We will seek a way, one way or another, to fill the void and pain of being treated as worthless to relieve that pain -  or die trying. If we ever lose complete hope of obtaining a sense of worth/ meaning/purpose, we will seek to end our lives. 

We applaud the human spirit. We love it when someone, against all odds, refuses to give in to the struggles and setbacks of life and fights back against being treated as less then they are. Instead of giving up, they battle back against opposition, defeat, and pain to eventually rise and ²overcome being mistreated. The greater the struggle, the more we cheer when they overcome it. The sweetest victory is the one that occurs when it seems least likely to happen. This resonates with all of us. We love the underdog who wins! 

This is why the greatest stories and movies echo this theme. We love an epic battle of ³good vs evil in movies like Star Wars (box office sales prove the universal appeal) or any movie that depicts an underdog overcoming overwhelming adversity such as "Rudy", "Hoosiers" or "Shawn Shank Redemption." We love it when these underdogs are in the battle of their life and desperately losing (or considered "losers") then, against all odds, they come back and win. 

Super Bowl LI with the history-making come back of Tom Brady and the Patriots is a classic example. Even if you don't like the Patriots, you still may applaud, quietly respect and maybe even admire their "never quit" approach to the game. At a minimum, you will at least wish your team had the same focus and determination.

Why does this connect so deeply within us all? Why do we cheer the Rocky's of the world so enthusiastically?  

We desire greatness and we cheer those on who achieve it. We are all wired for infinite worth, importance, greatness. To engage it, experience it, and live it! It is who we are meant to be. 

We all look and hope for something more. Even to the point, we live it out vicariously through various celebrity types. We worship "successful" people because it makes us feel important. "Check it out! I know this or that about so and so (sharing something about some well know celebrity)!! Wooowhoooo!!"" 

If we ever lose hope of obtaining some sense of value/importance/worth, we give up and die. We simply must have it.

But why is this? Why is there such universal appeal? 

We are all hard-wired for greatness because we are hard-wired to engage, participate in, and experience GOD who is greatest! 

We are all wired for GOD. And not just any god but the only true God who created and sustains everything; who is of infinite worth, greatness, love, and beauty. A God we were designed to fully engage, experience, and enjoy. 

Because we were wired to engage and experience greatness i.e. God himself - we long for it (greatness) because he is greatest. 

However, we settle for far less. We settle for the finite when we are designed for the Infinite i.e. we pursue the things of creation instead of the Creator. We go about life content - but only short-term; moment to moment, like a bee constantly seeking pollen when we experience the slightest little thing that affirms us. 

Only the Infinite, Almighty, All-Glorious, Majestic, Loving, and Beautiful God can fulfill us! Ultimately, nothing else will do.

For a further discussion on our being created for glory click here.

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Footnotes:

 ¹ We are of great value as God's image-bearers (and therefore need to experience/feel and participate in great value)

² This is why death is so gut-wrenching and puzzling.  Even though many rationalize it away and say it's an inevitable part of life, in our gut we know something is wrong and not as things were meant to be. Death just feels wrong. We have an innate sense, life should never end (and we only give up on living when we can no longer acquire or enjoy the things of life as easily as we grow older or for some other reasons are unable to enjoy the fruits of this life). Even though death is a common part of our existence,  instinctively, deep down, we know death is not a normal part of life but a terrible aberration.  

This is also why resurrection...life overcoming death, is such an exciting and appealing message/reality. This is why the resurrection of Christ was and is so vital. Because he overcame the greatest possible adversity - adversity that killed him - we have hope we too can overcome it in and through Him. 

³ Note what characterizes good vs evil is rooted in being treated or not treated with value; being loved as we wish to be loved, treated as we wish to be treated. Where does this desire come from? It goes directly to the infinite worth of God himself. To explore this more click here. 

Driven by shame

Those who try to shame others into behaving the way they desire (i.e. to control them with shame) are themselves usually influenced or driven by shame (i.e. guilt feelings). We do who we are.

Why do most of us operate out of shame? 

The further away from God's ¹design we operate, the greater our guilt (real guilt vs guilt feelings). The greater our guilt feelings - i.e. sense of shame - the more it drives us and becomes our modus operandi -- the way we operate i.e. our actions are driven by guilt and shame instead of love as we were designed to operate.

Instead of seeking God to help us change the behavior that results in our shame, we often seek to get others to approve our behavior to find relief. We may not like the consequences of conduct that violates our design, but we like having no restrictions on our choices even less.

Because we are designed to ²give and receive love but cannot do so -- unless "plugged in" to the Source of love -- we never operate as we were designed, but are always operating with guilt and shame -- though we typically are not fully conscious of it unless some event triggers and surfaces it.

The more we operate out of shame the lower our sense of value/worth i.e. The more worthless we feel. This process often leads to depression and can ultimately lead to suicide if not addressed.

This is why we are constantly trying to do things to make us feel better about ourselves; to feel more important/ significant. We are in a constant state of pain and shame and always looking to relieve it.

As a result, we try to avoid things that make us feel worthless and cause shame -- like admitting we failed to accomplish a desired goal or are wrong when we mistreat others.

The only way to break free from this cycle of bondage, guilt, and shame is the grace of God -- the good news/gospel -- found in Jesus Christ alone.

For a further discussion of why we avoid the cause of guilt and shame click here.

For a further discussion of the cause and removal of guilt and shame click here.

For a discussion on the futility of engaging in guilt and shame click here and here.

For a discussion on our being designed for greatness/glory click here and here. 

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¹we are like God, designed for love. God is love, giving and receiving it back again. We need love (God); to receive it (Him) and reflect it to others and back to Him. We are most complete when we operate in this way - as we are designed to.

² "Positively" by outdoing/outperforming others. 

Negatively, by criticizing others to feel better about ourselves.

As God's rebellious image bearers, we run on empty (due to our rebellion) because we are disconnected from the Source of love. As a result, we attempt to get and take love instead of give and receive it as we were designed. At some level, we know this. For a further discussion on this point click here. 

I am putting "positively" in quotes because even though outdoing/outperforming others is considered constructive behavior, it is still behavior in an attempt to bolster our own sense of worth outside of God. This kind of behavior may be positive in the eyes of others but is contrary to who God designed us to be.

avoiding guilt and shame

Why do we avoid experiencing guilt and shame (i.e. resist acknowledging our shortcomings), often with great energy and determination? Because guilt and shame is crippling i.e. It makes us feel worthless. 

This goes against everything in us. We are not designed to feel worthless but cherished and loved. To say it another way, we are hard wired to experience greatness/glory (For more discussion in this see the links below).

It doesn't take much 

Guilt and shame is right below the surface of our feelings and easily exposed/surfaced with the slightest provocation. We are walking guilt and shame time bombs with a hairpin trigger. We see evidence of this with some of the items listed below. 

How do we avoid (or respond to) feelings of guilt and shame? Our options:

·      Lash out at those who cause these (play the victim...common today)

·       Avoid those who cause these (find a "safe space" which can be lonely since none of us are perfect i.e. there are no truly safe spaces since we must engage people all the time).

·      Ignore or pretend our shame doesn't really exist i.e. It's all in our head.

·      Recognize and experience the removal of actual guilt and shame (not just the feelings) through the sacrificial death of Christ on our behalf (the only permanent and real solution).

For a further discussion of the cause and removal of guilt and shame click here.

For a discussion on the futility of indulging in guilt and shame click here and here.

For a discussion on our being designed for greatness/glory click here and here. 

The significance of being dependent/finite

It is obvious we are dependent beings. We see this demonstrated on a daily basis. We must have food, air, water and shelter to remain alive. If any one of these are not available we will perish physically.

We are also dependent beings spiritually and emotionally. This is evidenced by our constant need and ongoing attempt to find a sense of value, purpose and meaning. 

Why is this significant?

*This shows we must have/need meaning otherwise why the constant seeking of it.

*It also shows our attempts at acquiring it on our own, independent of God, are inadequate.

Our constant focus on self instead of God is the result and indication of our rebellion to this dependence/design.

God is the source of love, life and all things, we are not. We are designed to be consciously and deliberately connected with him and nothing else as our source for true, lasting meaning.

And if he is, to think we can find life outside and apart from him is harmful in the greatest possible way. It is like being on a road you hope and believe leads to the best possible destination when its doing exactly the opposite. It is the ultimate deception that leads to our greatest harm.

When we rebel from our design of finding true life in, through and from our Creator, we are in a *deep and constant state of pain/feeling worthless, without lasting meaning and purpose. We unsuccessfully seek to fill this void without God, when only God alone can fill it.

The good news is in His kindness, God made a way to restore and reconnect us, if we will receive his offer i.e. stop our rebellion (distrust) and start trusting him.

If we refuse his offer to reconnect-unite and find true life in him we remain in our state of pain-feeling worthless without lasting meaning and purpose. This leads ultimately to our greatest harm, not to mention dishonoring to God.
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*we are often not fully aware of our painful longing for meaning-purpose-value until we are pressed beyond our natural ability to cope i.e. when using whatever it is we use and depend on to find meaning, independent of God - our true source - is no longer possible.

For a further discussion click here.

Being devalued

When you are wronged you are being devalued i.e. you're being treated as unimportant - insignificant, worthless; as if you don't matter.

Why is this wrong? Because you do matter; you have value and significance.

Why are ¹we valuable and significant? 

Because God is the most valuable and most significant of all, and He made us like himself - in His image. Therefore, we have intrinsic value. 

Our intrinsic value is not based on something you or I do but who we are, who God created us to be i.e. like Himself - in His image.

Why did God make us this way?

So we can participate in who He is - as the most significant and valuable being of all - in order to partake of and enjoy the eternal bliss (happiness) within the community of Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit.

And when we do, we reflect His value and significance back to Him and out to others like nothing else in creation i.e. only we are created in His image. The only other being described in this way is the Son of God. 

To treat someone (who is like God) with honor and dignity - which is rightfully theirs as God's image-bearer - honors God and them for who they truly are, i.e. as significant and valuable. God being the most high, most valuable and significant of all, and humanity being like him. 

Our most basic value has to do with who we are, who we were created to be by the infinitely valuable/supreme God, not in what we do. We can only do, because of who we are 1st. 

And we can do as we were designed to only if and when empowered by God's Love-Spirit. 

Our value may be expressed and displayed by what we do but is not the grounds of it. God and who he made us to be, is the basis of our value.

When we see this we understand why loving God with all we are and have and our neighbor as ourselves is the 1st and 2nd greatest commandment and why the 2nd follows the 1st.

Everything about who we are and what we do must start with God, and return back to Him - for from him, through him, and to him are all things. To him be all glory (honor) forever! Amen!

In summary, there are 4 reasons we are valuable and significant!

1. God is a being of infinite value and significance; we are like Him. This is who we are and has nothing to do with our actions i.e. what we ¹do.

2. Because we are like God we can partake of and enjoy His value and significance in a way no other being - other than himself - can. 

3. And we can bring glory (honor) and joy to God by enjoying, trusting, and living as He designed i.e. in union and faithful pursuit and enjoyment of Him and His directions...

4. Thereby reflecting God's value and significance to others i.e. loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. 

Because this is true of all men and women before they come to Christ - i.e. this is how God "hard wired" us - they can reflect Him in a significant way once they are restored to a right relationship with Him and indwelt and empowered by his Love/Spirit.

They can bear good fruit thereby reflecting and honoring God - their infinitely valuable Creator - like nothing else in Creation can, since nothing else is created like God; in His image. 

We alone are like God - in his image. To not be treated accordingly is a huge violation/ offense against us - who we are - and against our Creator who made us this way.

For further discussions on our value click 

Created for glory 

Worthless, rotten sinners? 

Does God value us? 

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¹though it does explain how and why we live for His honor and glory.

The internal dynamics of our dilemma and God's amazing solution/offer!

Our problem isn't knowing what we should do, it's doing what we know we should. 

As a result, we have two opposing dynamics going on inside each of us which creates deep-seated conflict with subtle but far-reaching implications and impact. 

Those dynamics are:

1. We have an intuitive understanding and awareness of what is right. The old saying and golden rule "do to others as you would have them do to you" or "love others as you want them to love you," comes to mind. Who doesn't agree with this? Virtually every religion and ethical system recognizes this as a important universal principle in one form or another. 

We also know intuitively this is right and true. It becomes most apparent when we are on the ¹receiving end of not being treated this way -- when we are not treated with dignity, value, respect...in a word, love -- we feel wronged/offended. 

YET

2. None of us has the internal strength (spiritually,  emotionally) to actually ²live this way -- to treat others as we wish to be treated. Sure, on occasion we might, but consistently and perfectly... no way. When it comes to taking care of ourselves or another we naturally (vs supernaturally) take care of ourselves 1st. Why? Because we must have love by design. Without love we are "takers" instead of "givers."

As a result of these two opposing dynamics within us all, and our failure to love others as we wish to be loved, we constantly go about things with this deep-seated, nagging sense of failure, guilt and shame (no matter how unconscious and deeply buried this may be). We constantly fail to live up to what we intuitively know is right and how we were designed, yet never carry out. 

We aren't living up to our own ¹internally embedded standard much less the ones others try to impose on us. 

As a result, we are always going about life with this internal conflict and tension of knowing who we should be and what we should do, yet never doing it consistently (though we mask our shame well and are rarely fully conscious of it). 

At a result of this conflict, deep down inside all of us is a nagging sense of worthlessness (though we are far from being worthless. For more on this click here). 

This often manifests itself in depression. We can never consistently feel good about ourselves - if we base our worth solely on our efforts - because we fail to ³be what we know, at a deep unconscious - or conscious - level, we should be. 

A sense of worthlessness is at the heart of all emotional pain. It is why we are in a perpetual state of pain. We were designed for glory, the opposite of worthlessness.

Seeking relief. 

No wonder we are always trying to do things to prove we aren't so bad (i.e. so self-centered) and seek to obtain anything that makes us feel better about ourselves, if only for a moment i.e. temporarily.

No wonder we are always seeking to be affirmed and recognized by others as important, special, worthwhile, etc. 

No wonder we are offended when people treat us as unimportant/ worthless and don't give us the affirmation we want and feel we deserve. 

We may not be fully aware of the conflict, but we are very aware of our constant need to feel better about ourselves. At a minimum, this is the conscious or "external" evidence of this deeply buried conflict.  

This conflict/tension is a constant part of our lives. We are always seeking affirmation in one form or another. We are always seeking to feel better about ourselves. We are always seeking peace, contentment, joy in one form, or another. Every sales offer assumes and appeals to this at some level. 

We are always seeking internal calm by trying to order our external world (circumstances) in such a way that we can experience this elusive sense of internal peace. Always!!!

What do we do? What can we do?! 

Well, we can distract ourselves (seek to control our environment), through a variety of means. Recreation, drugs, sex, meditation, entertainment, achievement, "beating the next guy," power, fame, money (which affords us many of the other things on the list) etc.

OR

We can try to psyche ourselves into thinking this sense of failure doesn't really exist but is due only to an overly active imagination/ conscience or is part of "cultural programming"; that morality is just a myth, and these feelings of guilt and shame are only in our heads. It's all subjective and not real i.e. right and wrong is not an objective reality.

So how's that working for us (you) so far? Have you found anything that gives this perfect (complete and constant) sense of total wholeness, peace, happiness, without having to constantly jump through hoops of one kind or another? Do you live consistently in a constant, ongoing state of peace and happiness etc. (Yet isn't this what we all want and seek?)

If not, why not? Is this even possible?! Yes, it is. There is an answer. And in truth, it's ultimately the only answer that works. 

And what is that? Glad you asked! 

We can accept God's solution.

First, we need to understand why this tension exists to begin with. We  are made to be loved and to love others. It's part of being like God...in his image. He gives and receives love between the Father, Son, and Spirit. A relationship of love is the core of God's very being. God IS love i.e. He is relationship. It's not just what he does, it is who he is.

We are like him and made for a relationship of love in order to partake of and experience God, who is the source of love, because he is a being of constant, never-ending, overflowing, bottomless love. 

Because of this, we will never feel truly whole unless and until we live in this love. It is who we are, how we are designed and why we exist. Knowing God and experiencing all that he is, is why we were created. The bible states this explicitly and if we stop to really consider this, on a deep level we know intuitively this matches our experience.

  

But this is not all there is to us. We have rejected (and still do) this true source of love. God himself. We choose to operate on our own, with little to no acknowledgment of our need for God (who is infinite, nonstop love) and now try to fill ourselves with substitutes... and think we can.  

But we can't! We are like a fish out of water flopping about, experiencing enough rainfall to keep us from drying up and dying, but nothing like we need to function at the level we were designed to operate.  We are designed to live and swim about in an endless sea of love i.e. with God. Not constantly gasping for breath.

How can a finite being (us) use finite created things to ever fill a need for something Infinite i.e. God himself? That's like putting a pint of fuel in a jet and expecting it to fly (we may be able to briefly fire up the engines at best).

But there is good news! 

God did this for us! Did what?! What does that mean? Christ, while on earth, loved perfectly and completely (because this is who he is and how he has always been throughout eternity past) to the point of dying. He actually gave himself up to be sacrificed.

He first loved His Father. And because he loved his Father he loved us. 

Why would he do that, and how did he? 

Two ways/reasons he showed his love for us. 

1. So that we, who can't live as we were created to, don't have to in order to have God's love. Now God offers us Christ's faithful life of love in exchange for our not living the life of love that we are created for. He did this as proof of his love for us. If we accept this, the Father credits Christ's life of love to us as if we lived this kind of life. (good bye guilt and shame over our failures to love as God deserves and others as we are designed to)

2. And not only does God offer to credit us with this perfect life but God put the consequences of our not living this kind of life; the life we were designed to live, onto Christ. (good bye judgment, condemnation and rejection)

For a further discussion of God's solution and its necessity click here.

Now, guess what? When we recognize we can never resolve the deep-seated conflict within or ever satisfy our deepest longing and then believe and accept his offer, it's done! There is no more guilt, no more shame, no more condemnation or rejection by God! It's gone!!! Hard to believe, but it's true. And that is now our only issue; do we believe this? The more we do, the freer we are. This is God's free offer to us if we accept it. Do you accept it?

We still blow it!

But don't we still blow it? Yes, we still do. We still don't love as we are designed to but God no longer looks at this as necessary for extending his complete, uninterrupted love to us. If we accept his offer He now sees and accepts Christ's perfect record as ours, credited to our "account" if you will.  

This would be like us having a seriously overdrawn bank account and then someone else with an account that has an unlimited balance assigns their account over to us.  It was earned by them, but out of their love for us and desire that we experience their wealth, they assigned it over and put our name on the account. Not only is everything in this other account now ours, but the funds from this new account were used to zero out our overdraw account and close it.  That old account is now gone along with all its debt. Everything in the assigned account is now ours. 

And not only so, but before God made this offer, we were still his enemies. How? We opposed God by trying to be our own god and fill our need for love with things other than God (and still do) which doesn't work i.e. it is not possible because it violates our design. We are designed for the infinite, not the finite-limited creation.  

It is also a lie because it says we can be who God designed us to be without Him. If we are designed for infinite love and God is that infinite love, this is not only impossible but it dishonors him for who he truly is... the only Source of true and infinite love and life.

Seeking to be for ourselves what only God can be for us caused a rift in our relationship with God. This blocked our experience of his love for us (not his actual love) so we no longer felt or experienced it. (If however, we receive his offer in Christ that barrier is removed and God's love is now freely available to us. To accept His offer is saying we can't be all we are designed to be apart from our Creator). 

Once we began to see this; once this really seeps into the core of our being, we fall in love with Him and Christ for doing this for us. The more we see how antagonistic we have been and are to God and all He has done to completely remedy this, the more we fall in love with Him. What an incredible gift this is! How can we ever thank God enough? 

Glad you asked. 

Now that we have been freed of the obligation to give God his due honor (since Christ satisfied this for us), we are free to live this life of love he's designed us for (which also "just happens" to bring us the greatest sense of meaning and purpose since this is why we were made to begin with). 

We now are loved in such a way that when we "get it" it draws out of us a desire to love back and a trust in following His direction (how can we not trust someone who would do all this for us). Now we have a reason to love as we were originally designed to. The love from someone else (i.e. God) we were designed to experience from the beginning has been restored back to us and is now fully ours, never to be taken away. We no longer live the life of love we were designed to live because we have to in order to be loved again. We now have that love we were originally designed to experience. It was secured by someone else's efforts, not ours. Therefore, it is completely ours and can never be cut off or blocked again. Now we love others out of love and gratitude for what God and Christ did for us and desire to share this with others. 

We also now want to show Him off (honor/glorify Him) to others because, for the first time, we now understand how amazing He is and now see He deserves our love and honor and that others also need this love/Him. We want to live for his honor and their good. And the way we do is to love him and others in the same way he loved us.

BUT, I can't relate to what you describe above. I am just not feeling it.

Now the truth is most don't experience this inner conflict I described in the beginning, on a conscious level and to the extent I have described it. However, what we all experience is a longing for love. This we are, more or less, far more conscious of then the inner conflict mentioned above. (In fact, most of us don't even experience how great this desire for love is until we "fall in love" for the first time and experience a longing we didn't know existed before then).

And if we have some success in finding love or if we have grown up in a nurturing environment due to stable and loving parents, we won't know much (or at least be aware of the depth) of this conflict. 

But we all know what it's like to lose love in some form or another. Separation from a dear friend, spouse, loving parent, or sibling due to a variety of reasons, such as relocation, death, estrangement, etc should hit home for most of us. And when we lose it, then we become aware of a longing for what was lost. The simple reality is none of us can live without love and a sense of value very long. 

All of this points to the nature of our make up and raises the question, where does this come from? How can we express a personal need for a loving relationship if we came about by accident from an impersonal universe? No matter how much we try to reason away this central part of our make up, there it is, staring us in the face when we least expect it. 

Do you wish to continue on this path of longing or do you wish to turn to the path you were created for? He extends the offer I have mentioned. Will you accept and receive it?

Further discussion on depression click here

Further discussion on our being finite click here

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Footnotes:

¹We cannot get away from this or set it aside. We bump up against this everyday in everything we do. We all intrinsically seek to be valued. In a word we are hard wired for love.

²We can't because we are "running on empty." We are void of the love we were designed to receive/experience/participate in and must have in order to love others sacrificially. It's just not in us to do so on our own. It has to come from somewhere outside of us; from another source; a Source we cut ourselves off from.

³doing as we are designed to do only comes out of being who we were designed to be...fully connected to the source of life and love, God himself.