Tonight at church Matt talked about how all of our souls are screaming for love. Some people try to experience that love through power, "If I am in charge of enough then people will love me because they have to." Others try to experience love through their own achievement. They think, "if only I accomplish enough, if only I am successful enough then people will see how good I am and they will see that I am really worthy of being loved." Still others try to experience love through sexual relationships, finding their value in their capacity to give another person pleasure. Ultimately these things will not satisfy, because no human being is capable of loving us with the intensity that we require.
I am amazed at my own capacity to strive for the love and respect of others despite the fact that God has loved me so fully and so freely. I really needed the reminder that God doesn't love me because of how much I pray or how much I serve; He loves me because He does, because it is in His very nature to love me. He loves us even when we don’t love Him! His love is not given under the condition that we feel it or receive it or reciprocate it.
I had to be reminded as well that God's love never runs out. We tend to think of God's love in relation to the love that we give and receive from other people. We start to buy into the idea that love is only valid to a certain extent, that when you make enough mistakes or provoke someone enough it is only fair that their love for you should run out. I sometimes feel like God must certainly be at the end of His rope with me by now, surely His patience is wearing thin. I forget that God created me, that He loved me when I was still a sinner, that He continues to love me despite my propensity for sin, He loves me even when I can't stand the sight of myself. God loves me passionately enough to have sent His Son from the glory of Heaven to the pain and sorrow of earth. He loves me so much that He sent His one and only perfect, beloved Son to the cross for the benefit of a sinner like me.Today I am just so overwhelmingly thankful that Jesus Christ is my treasure, my strength and my hope.
I am amazed at my own capacity to strive for the love and respect of others despite the fact that God has loved me so fully and so freely. I really needed the reminder that God doesn't love me because of how much I pray or how much I serve; He loves me because He does, because it is in His very nature to love me. He loves us even when we don’t love Him! His love is not given under the condition that we feel it or receive it or reciprocate it.
I had to be reminded as well that God's love never runs out. We tend to think of God's love in relation to the love that we give and receive from other people. We start to buy into the idea that love is only valid to a certain extent, that when you make enough mistakes or provoke someone enough it is only fair that their love for you should run out. I sometimes feel like God must certainly be at the end of His rope with me by now, surely His patience is wearing thin. I forget that God created me, that He loved me when I was still a sinner, that He continues to love me despite my propensity for sin, He loves me even when I can't stand the sight of myself. God loves me passionately enough to have sent His Son from the glory of Heaven to the pain and sorrow of earth. He loves me so much that He sent His one and only perfect, beloved Son to the cross for the benefit of a sinner like me.Today I am just so overwhelmingly thankful that Jesus Christ is my treasure, my strength and my hope.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment