Everybody wants to be loved by someone. We want to know someone who genuinely cares for us will be there. We want to feel appreciated and wanted. Not everyone knows that there is already someone who does this. There is someone who has always loved us with an unfailing love before time even began. He doesn’t just love us, he IS Love. We were created to know this Love. Our hearts were formed to be filled with it.
“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
Nothing we have done or will ever do changes his love for us. Nothing we do or say ever surprises God. He is never caught off guard. So we cannot say, “Now he won’t love me. Because I did that, God doesn’t want me anymore.” NO. When Jesus died on the cross he knew every single time we would mess up. He knew it all, but it gave him GREAT PLEASURE to die for it! To die for you!
You might think, “God, do you know what you’re getting yourself into? Do you know me? I won’t be able to repay you. Why would you want someone like me? I will fail you. I will mess up. You don’t want someone like me.” And yet God says “Of course I want you! I have loved you with an everlasting love. I sent my son to take on the punishment of every one of your sins so I could be with you. I want to have a personal relationship with you. Let me love you.” The amazing thing is that God is the one who pursues us. He loves us first.❤
“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21)
What love is this?! That the Creator of the universe would see my sin, not just my words and actions, but my heart and still give abundant grace.
“Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.”
(Psalm 44:21)
The one who knows the deepest parts of me loves me the most.
God is love. He isn’t a God up above banging down a gavel on every one of your mistakes and mess-ups. When we mess up again and again and again, he so willing shows us wonderful grace again and again and again.
God’s Grace: Loving You in Spite of Your Failures
It’s somewhat easy to put on a mask and try to “look good.” You can try to hide the bad in you and make yourself seem great. Try to get people to like you. However, sometimes you know that if they knew the true you, they might treat you differently. Guess what? God knows the true you. He knows every action, every word, and every thought. He knows your past and your future, yet he still loves you with a love greater than any other. The fact that the God over everything in Heaven and on Earth would see my sin, how I betrayed him, mocked him, hurt him, and yet continue to lavish out more and more grace upon me is incredible. He casts away my sin as far as the East is from the West. When I mess up again and again, when I continue to fail him, he NEVER fails me and ALWAYS forgives me. He shows grace beyond measure. It gives him GREAT PLEASURE to love and forgive me.
He came for the liars and hypocrites like me because in reality, the only good in me is Jesus. Without him, my good deeds are just filthy rags. When there is nothing I can give him to ever repay, he gives me himself.
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5)
This should blow our minds! And yet, how many times do we seem to forget how great his love is for us? We take it for granted. When his love is all that matters, we make it so small. Some days I am made speechless from realizing just a glimpse of God’s great love for me. Yet some days, it’s just an afterthought on the back burner.
It’s important to look at the weight of our sin and realize just how great it is, but at the same time, look to the cross and realize just how much greater God is. He bore our sins, in his body on that tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”(Isaiah 53:2-6)
The Depth of God’s Love for You
Every lash of the whip should have been struck on me. Every ounce of pain running through Jesus’s veins should have run through my body. Every thorn from his crown should have torn through my head. Every drop of blood, I should have shed because every piercing was for my sin. Every tear for my mistakes. For by his wounds, I am healed.
No love will ever compare. No one will ever love you more than Jesus. No matter what you’ve done or said. No matter your past, present, or future. HE LOVES YOU with an unfailing, everlasting love. God went to hell and back to prove that to you. Though we can never repay him for this love he still lavishly pours it upon us.
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:6-9)
The Bible says Christ died for us “at just the right time.” When was that time? “When we were utterly helpless.” Christ knew there would never be a time when we would be good enough or strong enough. We would never be worthy of a Savior, but that didn’t stop him from coming and saving us! You see, Christ saved us when we were UTTERLY helpless. He sent his son to be tortured so that we didn’t have to. When we were weak and needy, he did this. There is great assurance and comfort in this. Knowing that God knows everything, therefore, he knew when he died for us that we were always going to be utterly helpless in and of ourselves. Because of this, we can be 100% confident that his love will never leave us or forsake us. We can never fail too much to lose his love. We can never win so much to gain his love. He saved us at our weakest knowing we could NEVER repay him and he delighted in suffering to give us what we will NEVER deserve.
Embracing God’s Love in Your Life
Words fall short when describing Christ’s love. They can only say so much. I’m convinced that if we were to see the full immensity of this love, we would immediately fall on our faces in awe and worship. I can’t wait for the day when I can bow at the feet of my King and praise him for eternity. But until that day, I pray I do not lose sight of the one worthy of my everything. May I never lose the wonder of his unfailing love.❤
By Grace Alone,
Rebekah Elizabeth
