I Found Love: Raw Stories of Real People Finding LoveSample

“There was always this gnawing in the back of my mind,” singer Danny Gokey says. “Is God with me? Or is God going to leave me because of my mistakes?” 

Danny grew up in a Christian home. His grandfather was a pastor. His parents brought him to church every week. He learned the foundations of the faith while attending a Christian school. But throughout that time he constantly worried if God would save his soul in the end. The message of Jesus is simple: “All the world is perishing. Jesus came to save it. Trust him and you will be saved. You will escape death and inherit heaven.” And Danny never doubted that message. He just doubted his own ability to trust Jesus.

God doesn’t love you more when you do good or love you less when you do bad. When the worst happens, it doesn’t mean his affections for you have changed. His offer to save is not based on a perfect outworking of faith or a list of laws that must be kept. God is God. Come hell, high water, or the death of your spouse, God still rules the universe. He has not forgotten his promises, and he will not leave you.

“There is something absolutely wrong with a works mentality,” Danny says of those who, like himself, have sought to work their way into God’s favor. “I burned myself out trying to do every aspect of works and keep every aspect of God’s law. As a young kid I didn’t believe Jesus was enough. I believed it was Jesus plus ‘Now I’ve got to do x, y, and z.’ But he is enough. He comes first. He is first. And I am second.”

God loves you.

That’s it.

He doesn’t require you to clean up, act up, or ‘fess up before he loves you. He loves first. Everything else comes later. His promise to save you flows from that love. Whatever heartbreak, disappointment, or loss you are facing, it’s not God saying he doesn’t love, but him saying “I am God. Be still and let me prove that I still love you.”