I want to take a moment to pause and put things into perspective. I know that some of what I say can sound radical or even offensive. I'm not trying to be. I'm just writing about what's on my mind and what God has put on my heart. No matter what I say here though, I want you to walk away with at least this: love. I want to take a moment to reflect on the love of God and how it impacts us as Christians.
The love of God is infinite. It has no measure. In our little finite brains, it's hard to get this wrapped around our heads. We talk about the love of God all the time. We sing about the deep, deep love of Jesus and how He loves us all but we have a hard time understanding it. Because God's love is infinite, there is never a shortage of it. He doesn't have to ration out His love in order for it to reach the whole world. He loves all of us abundantly.
Our love is finite. It has measure. We are finite so our love only goes so far. We can't look at someone as if they've never sinned because we can only see what's in front of us. Our love is rationed. It can't reach to the whole world without running out.
God's love caused Him to do something mind-blowing. We read in John 3:16 "For God so loved the World that He ave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." God sent His Son to die for us and yet we rattle off that verse and talk about the Cross like it happens every day. Let's put it in different words: Because the Creator all things, including you, loves you so much, He sent His Son Jesus who is fully God and a part of God to take the penalty of your sin. He did this so that anyone, including you, that puts their trust in Jesus and accepts His sacrifice shall not (I love the verb usage of 'shall' here. Not won't but shall not as in never ever ever-it ain't gonna happen shall not) be separated from God but have life in his presence forever and ever. You see, God's love made the sacrifice we weren't able for. His love made a way so that we could see our way to Him. Not because we were so great but because God is so great. We love Him now, but He loved us first. He didn't have to but He did.
God's love covers all sins. The act of the cross has paid the price for our sins. Getting us back from Satan had a price and Jesus paid it so He could set us free for Satan's grip. You want to know something cool? Jesus' death covered the sins you committed ever since you were born, including the ones since you became a Christian and it covered all the sins you will ever commit. Think on that for a bit. Jesus' death justifies us so that we have a clean sin slate in God's eyes. Even the ones we haven't committed yet. God doesn't see our sins as soon as we commit them the are expunged from our eternal record because Jesus paid for them already. We stand faultless before God. He loves us. That's all that matters. He doesn't care about your sins. He doesn't get mad when you do something wrong. He doesn't take a step back and say, "Well, you've kinda messed up so I'm going to give you some space to get your act together. Then we can have our relationship back. Of course it's not going to be the same between us because you have broken my trust. You are going to really need to work on those kinks and problem areas." If you are reading this and can relate to that way of thinking, I want you to stop in your tracks. God does not, I repeat DOES NOT EVER take a step back when you sin. He doesn't make you get you ducks realigned before continuing on. He isn't disappointed or angry. He knows you through and through. He knows you better than you do and He loves you anyway. He's never made man take the first step back towards Him because we can't. We never could and we never will. Not on our own. He pursues us wherever we are. He's right there to help us pick up the pieces and fix the problem. Let me rephrase that. He picks up the pieces and fixes the problems. Don't ever think that God loves you any less for your mistakes. Just because we can't see past our mistakes doesn't mean God can't.
God's love cannot be changed. Because God's love is infinite, it can't be altered. It's impossible to change something that can't be measured. We can't make God love us any less by sinning and we can't make God love us any more because we do good. God doesn't care about that. He loves us for us, not for what we do. Believe me, if God loved us for what we did, we would be hopelessly lost. We've never done anything to make ourselves more lovable to a holy God. God doesn't play favorites. He doesn't favor one believer over another because they do all the right things. Our standing before Him is the same forever: child, dearly beloved by God no matter what.
If nothing else from this blog gets read or understood: walk away with this: God loves you for you not for what you do. God can't love you more or less. He loves you infinitely. Always and forever He loves you infinitely.
Shake us up, Lord!
The love of God is infinite. It has no measure. In our little finite brains, it's hard to get this wrapped around our heads. We talk about the love of God all the time. We sing about the deep, deep love of Jesus and how He loves us all but we have a hard time understanding it. Because God's love is infinite, there is never a shortage of it. He doesn't have to ration out His love in order for it to reach the whole world. He loves all of us abundantly.
Our love is finite. It has measure. We are finite so our love only goes so far. We can't look at someone as if they've never sinned because we can only see what's in front of us. Our love is rationed. It can't reach to the whole world without running out.
God's love caused Him to do something mind-blowing. We read in John 3:16 "For God so loved the World that He ave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." God sent His Son to die for us and yet we rattle off that verse and talk about the Cross like it happens every day. Let's put it in different words: Because the Creator all things, including you, loves you so much, He sent His Son Jesus who is fully God and a part of God to take the penalty of your sin. He did this so that anyone, including you, that puts their trust in Jesus and accepts His sacrifice shall not (I love the verb usage of 'shall' here. Not won't but shall not as in never ever ever-it ain't gonna happen shall not) be separated from God but have life in his presence forever and ever. You see, God's love made the sacrifice we weren't able for. His love made a way so that we could see our way to Him. Not because we were so great but because God is so great. We love Him now, but He loved us first. He didn't have to but He did.
God's love covers all sins. The act of the cross has paid the price for our sins. Getting us back from Satan had a price and Jesus paid it so He could set us free for Satan's grip. You want to know something cool? Jesus' death covered the sins you committed ever since you were born, including the ones since you became a Christian and it covered all the sins you will ever commit. Think on that for a bit. Jesus' death justifies us so that we have a clean sin slate in God's eyes. Even the ones we haven't committed yet. God doesn't see our sins as soon as we commit them the are expunged from our eternal record because Jesus paid for them already. We stand faultless before God. He loves us. That's all that matters. He doesn't care about your sins. He doesn't get mad when you do something wrong. He doesn't take a step back and say, "Well, you've kinda messed up so I'm going to give you some space to get your act together. Then we can have our relationship back. Of course it's not going to be the same between us because you have broken my trust. You are going to really need to work on those kinks and problem areas." If you are reading this and can relate to that way of thinking, I want you to stop in your tracks. God does not, I repeat DOES NOT EVER take a step back when you sin. He doesn't make you get you ducks realigned before continuing on. He isn't disappointed or angry. He knows you through and through. He knows you better than you do and He loves you anyway. He's never made man take the first step back towards Him because we can't. We never could and we never will. Not on our own. He pursues us wherever we are. He's right there to help us pick up the pieces and fix the problem. Let me rephrase that. He picks up the pieces and fixes the problems. Don't ever think that God loves you any less for your mistakes. Just because we can't see past our mistakes doesn't mean God can't.
God's love cannot be changed. Because God's love is infinite, it can't be altered. It's impossible to change something that can't be measured. We can't make God love us any less by sinning and we can't make God love us any more because we do good. God doesn't care about that. He loves us for us, not for what we do. Believe me, if God loved us for what we did, we would be hopelessly lost. We've never done anything to make ourselves more lovable to a holy God. God doesn't play favorites. He doesn't favor one believer over another because they do all the right things. Our standing before Him is the same forever: child, dearly beloved by God no matter what.
If nothing else from this blog gets read or understood: walk away with this: God loves you for you not for what you do. God can't love you more or less. He loves you infinitely. Always and forever He loves you infinitely.
Shake us up, Lord!
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