Thursday, July 1, 2010

Thursday Thoughts - We Are So Loved!

We are so loved. When was the last time you just sat down, cleared your head, and thought about that incredible truth? WE ARE SO LOVED! I just want to shout it from the rooftops!!!

As we begin to learn more about God and grow in our relationship with Him, we can all too often get completely consumed by what we should or shouldn’t do, how our decisions glorify or don’t glorify God, and who we should or shouldn’t become. Don’t get me wrong; it’s very important to spend time thinking about and praying through who God would want us to be and how He would want us to live, but our lives should be lived as a joyful response to His incredible love for us. So, how incredible is His love?

We can go back to the beginning of creation to see how crazy God has always been about us. On the sixth day of creation, after God was done creating everything in our natural world, He decided to create man and woman. Not only did He decide to create humanity, He made us in His very image and put us over all other living creatures. We can read on through Genesis and see that, out of great love for us, God created a beautiful garden with bountiful food and companionship in which people would live. I’m sure you’re familiar with what happens shortly after God created Adam and Eve – they chose to disobey Him and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…but have you ever considered the very concept that God created them, and us, with the loving gift of choice? God absolutely could have created us to live as puppets – making every right decision and pleasing Him with our every move – but, out of love, He created us with a free will. A will that could choose to love Him back or not. That has to be difficult for Him at times, but that’s love. (Genesis 1-3)

There are countless heart-wrenching examples of God’s love for us woven throughout the Old Testament. From Genesis to Malachi, humanity fell into this pattern - worship God, live fruitful lives, forget God and worship everything but Him, run into difficulties, cry out to God for help, experience deliverance from the difficulties, worship God, live fruitful lives, forget Him…and on and on and on. Because of our great imperfections and our inability to live up to God’s laws in the Old Testament, He decided to do something radical in order to bring us back to Himself – once and for all. God made the incredibly difficult decision to send His perfect Son to our sin-stricken world to become the final sacrifice for all of humanity. I’m sure that it’s mind-blowing for any parent to imagine taking their child out of a safe environment and throwing them to the wolves in order to save anyone, but think about how much more difficult it had to be for God. The Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – had been together forever as one entity. God chose to send His Son away from that perfect relationship to a world where He would be tempted, hated, mocked, beaten, and killed by the very people He was sent to save. That is love, sister. (John 3:16)

Now, let’s look at our present day lives. No matter where we go or what we do, God and His unfailing love are there. Think about that! What is the very worst thing you have ever done, thought, or said in your entire life? Maybe you’re like me and there are plenty of options to sort through. Right at the very moment we did that unthinkable thing, God and His unfailing love were there. Maybe you feel like you’ve become the very opposite from what God would want you to be – He still loves you with the exact same love He always has. He loves you just as much as the “holiest” person you know. When we acknowledge and believe that Jesus is Lord, NOTHING can separate us from God’s love. Nothing. We are so loved. (Hebrews 13:5, Ephesians 2:4-5, Romans 5:8, Romans 8:38)

Please make this prayer your own…

“Lord, thank you so much for your love. Honestly, I don’t understand why or how you love me like you do, but please teach me about the depth of your love for me. Father, I want to live every second of every day in the knowledge and freedom of your incredible love for me. Please help me to see myself as you see me – your forgiven child whom you’re crazy about. If there’s anything that I’m holding on to that keeps me from accepting your unfailing love, I pray that you would point it out to me and give me the courage to hand it over to you forever. Thank you, Father, and I love you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Check out these other incredible verses about God’s love for us. Don’t forget them, sister!

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies (Psalm 36:5).

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings (Psalm 36:7).

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love (Psalm 48:9).

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever (Psalm 52:8).

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15).

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever (Psalm 136:26).

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love (John 15:9).

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2).

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-5).

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

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