Love

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
-1 John 4:10

Our relationship with God was never, and is never, contingent on how we feel about Him. We learn in Paul's letter to the Romans that Christ demonstrated His love towards us while we were still in our sin by dying for us.* So then, we come to the paradox of being steeped in sin and wickedness - yet in love with God. In this we see that even our bravest attempts at faithfulness prove tenuous at best. Can it be? Any love we have, or the capacity thereof is only truly gifted to us and brought to fruition by the Father above. Apart from His love we are all counterfeits - pretending a behavior we can never fully grasp apart from Christ. 

*Romans 5:8