I have had a "demand" mentality, thinking God was demanding of me and feeling the weight of things being demanded of me, things I couldn't do. That mentality made me feel hopeless and ashamed because I couldn't keep the demands and was bound to fail!
Yet Jesus in grace brings us to a "supply" mentality, and we can know that whatever each day holds, He will supply all we need and more in abundance, freely giving through His love!
I love the way Pastor Prince talks about the Abraham asked to sacrifice Isaac passage in this clip. I love how he relates it to God's love for us! We can KNOW He loves us, be sure of it - how? Because He gave up His only Son FOR US!
I think the deepest cry of our hearts is to KNOW we are loved and cared for. Our insecurities and past hurts and rejections can make it hard to really trust that someone loves us. Sometimes we can feel unsure whether people really care about us or not, but when they make a sacrifice or show their commitment in action on our behalf, we can cross over to KNOWING they love us. This happened to me recently. I have a friend who is very outgoing and has many friends. I couldn't understand why she would be friends with a little introverted nerdly type like me, and so many times I was insecure that she really wanted me for a friend. Well, in the past few months I went through a difficult season. I was hurting and struggling over a personal issue. I thought noone knew I was hurting over this issue, but somehow my friend figured it out and worried about me. She was concerned for me, but she never mentioned her worries because I was too upset to even talk about the issue. Later she told me she worried and prayed for me about this problem every day for six months. In the moment when she told me that, I really KNEW my friend loved me. She cared enough to be concerned and pray for me every single day. And that is just a small picture or analogy of the infinitely greater love of God for us! When we see that from all eternity past, He has been concerned over us every single second of every single day, not really resting till He could solve our difficulty with sin, not really satisfied until He could have us reconciled to Him, willing and actually giving up His only Son to make that happen - we suddenly begin to KNOW He loves us!
God is a giver, not a taker. He is a supplier, not a demander. He is not our enemy but our Friend. He is not against us but for us! He is the One we can be SURE will always love us with a love too great for us to ever comprehend fully! We will never reach the end of that love, that supply, that grace that is found in Him! He is our truest Friend for all eternity, and we can say with the scripture verse, "Now I KNOW that You love me, because You have not withheld Your Son, Your Only Son, from me!"