{"id":448,"date":"2014-08-29T02:47:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/?p=448"},"modified":"2019-05-17T15:13:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T20:13:54","slug":"does-god-have-favorites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2014\/08\/29\/does-god-have-favorites\/","title":{"rendered":"Does God Have Favorites?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><a href=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/blueribbon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-458\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/blueribbon.jpg\" alt=\"Does God have favorites? Does God love me?\" width=\"560\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/blueribbon.jpg 560w, https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/blueribbon-209x300.jpg 209w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<p><em>By Lydia Floren<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have a confession: It has always annoyed me when Jesus\u2019 disciple, John, described himself as \u201cthe disciple Jesus loved.&#8221; \u00a0 When I see those words, my insecure, overachiever brain thinks like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Phase 1: Annoyance: \u201cBoy, John really thought a lot of himself!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Phase 2: Insecurity: \u201cDoes God have favorites?\u00a0 I thought He loved everybody.\u00a0 Does he love some people more than others? Where am I on his favorites list?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Phase 3: Competition:\u00a0 \u201cWhat makes <em>John<\/em> so special?\u00a0 Personally, I like Peter the best. He was one of the Big Three too, you know. And I\u2019m not so bad either.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Phase 4: Reality check: \u201cYou know, John didn&#8217;t call himself \u2018The disciple Jesus loved MOST\u2019, or\u00a0\u2018The ONLY disciple Jesus loved.\u2019\u00a0 He simply called himself \u2018the disciple Jesus loved.\u2019\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The truth takes awhile to work its way through my convoluted thought processes, but eventually I get it:\u00a0 John wasn&#8217;t proud of being loved by Jesus.\u00a0 He was awed by it.\u00a0 \u00a0John had experienced Christ\u2019s love so profoundly that it had become THE defining characteristic of his life. \u00a0To John, Christ\u2019s love was a magnificent gift, a bright light that obliterated all his faults and failings.<\/p>\n<p>For example, In the gospel of John it is interesting to see what John <em>didn\u2019t<\/em> say about himself.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t identify himself by his<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0 Importance:\u00a0 \u201cJohn, one of the Big Three\u201d\u00a0 (Peter, James and John),\u00a0 or<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 Role: the only disciple Jesus asked to care for His mother Mary,\u00a0 or<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 Occupation:\u00a0 \u201cthe Fisherman Disciple\u201d, or<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 Family connection: John, a son of Zebede.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 Accomplishments:\u00a0 the NYT bestselling author of 4 books in the Bible\u2014yes, THE BIBLE.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>John never said that he was \u201cthe disciple <em>that loved Jesus<\/em>,\u201d although his life showed that he did love Him. John understood that even his ability to love was due to Christ\u2019s love for him:\u00a0\u00a0\u201c<strong>We love,\u201d he pointed out in 1 John 4, \u201cbecause He first loved us.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I imagine <strong>John experienced Jesus\u2019 love most profoundly when he was at his worst.<\/strong> John discovered that Jesus\u2019 love did not waiver when he was imperfect, off track, or had his priorities mixed up. \u00a0Jesus loved John just the same when he&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cowered in the boat while his buddy, Peter, climbed out and walked on water.<\/li>\n<li>Tried to manage things, like shooing the kids away, or sending the 5000 to scavenge for supper.<\/li>\n<li>Stood by while his helicopter-mother jockeyed for a better position for him in heaven.<\/li>\n<li>Conked out \u00a0&#8211; in spite of Jesus\u2019 plea to stay awake and pray &#8211; in Jesus\u2019 greatest hour of need.<\/li>\n<li>Hightailed it, when Jesus was arrested, and when they tore his clothes off while chasing him, he kept on running naked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In his darkest times, John could understand that Jesus\u2019 love was a gift with no strings attached:\u00a0 it had nothing to do with his performance, and everything to do with God\u2019s grace. \u00a0Jesus loves us the same way. <strong>God&#8217;s love has nothing to do with our performance, and everything to do with God\u2019s grace.<\/strong> \u00a0His love is as constant as the sun\u2019s rise. \u00a0So wherever you are &#8211; at your \u201cbest,\u201d or at your worst, or somewhere in between &#8211; claim this truth by saying today: \u00a0<strong>\u00a0\u201cI am the disciple Jesus loves.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Does God have favorites? Of course He does.\u00a0 <em>We are each His favorite.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The steadfast love of the Lord never changes. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.\u00a0 Great is your faithfulness, O God. <\/em><em>Lamentations 3:22-23<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What about you? When do you experience the love of God?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lydia Floren I have a confession: It has always annoyed me when Jesus\u2019 disciple, John, described himself as \u201cthe disciple Jesus loved.&#8221; \u00a0 When I see those words, my insecure, overachiever brain thinks like this: Phase 1: Annoyance: \u201cBoy, John really thought a lot of himself!\u201d Phase 2: Insecurity: \u201cDoes God have favorites?\u00a0 I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[466],"tags":[491,74,6],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-gods-love","tag-attributes-of-god","tag-belonging-to-god","tag-gods-love"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does God Have Favorites? - Belovedlove<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you wonder...does God have favorites? 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