December 26, 2013
“God
is proud of us whenever we come back
to Him, out of our brokenness.”
Brought tears
to my eyes. (heard on KLOVE today)
Even when I
fall into lust, worry, struggle with sin, live with pride or defensiveness,
don’t spend near enough
time with God, don’t seek Him first …
… I simply look back up
to Him, and He smiles on me and takes me back
into His arms. What an amazing truth.
Carli’s prayer for us today was for Humble Hearts … remembering to show
God’s GRACE to other people. Even
when it seems like they are totally against
God and church and
everything that I know to be true and right…
Funny
“coincidence” ;) … my Jesus Calling today was about the same thing:
Unconditional Love.
And how hard it is to grasp, even for faithful followers.
When we are not
performing to our expectations, when we are dissatisfied with
our own behavior … we
tend to feel unworthy of His love.
We just have trouble grasping the fact that
NOTHING,
Nuh-nuh-nuh-nothing!,
Can EVER make Jesus love us less!
(OR make Him love us more).
He loves ALL people perfectly, whether they know it or
not.
Incredible.
His love is not
subject to variation.
What is, is our
awareness of His loving Presence. (!)
* Only our own ability to truly look, truly see … i.e. –to pay
attention– … is what fails to be consistent!
Ha!
Sometimes when we feel shame, we withdraw from Him and feel more
distant from His love, and then we try to earn our way back by working harder …
which never amounts to anything, because He already gave us Perfect Love as a
free gift …
… You wouldn’t say, “Wait, Santa! You can’t go back up the chimney! Let me pay you for all the gifts, and maybe a
shipping fee as well. … You won’t take
my money? How about I work for you until
I have paid back all I owe you? OK? …”
Or: “Mom, I don’t deserve
your hug. I was mean to you earlier. I haven’t done a good deed to make up for it
yet.”
So
then, why do we treat our relationship with God like this?
I once saw a
powerful video showing how God saves us freely, and we can’t do a
thing to earn His grace,
BUT we do have to ACCEPT His gift:
A man was chained to the
wall in a prison cell, dim, … with no hope.
Suddenly, Jesus appears
and opens the door, flooding the small room
with light and leaving
an open exit! The man looks down at his
hands and
sees that the chains
that once bound him to the wall have been released!
Nothing is holding him
down.
He could run free,
through the door and into new life! . . .
But he is too afraid to
leave.
Instead, he stands in
the dark room, no longer chained to the wall, but holding the broken chains in
his hands, …
… While Jesus stands at
the door, calling for him to come out.
The Lord quietly waits,
continually pursuing the man, but never
forcing him to come out. He did
give us free will … while the man is
missing out on true,
abundant life, with freedom from sin and a
perfect relationship
with our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus is knocking on the
door of your heart.
Will you open it and let
Him in? Will you follow Him out?!
We
don’t have to work to undo our own chains; we just have to run to Jesus!!
I swear I have
to relearn this like once a month.
Praise God I remember the part
that He saved me and
freed me from the eternal consequences of sin. … But I still
forget HOW MUUUCH HE
LOOOOVES us sometimes! I chase after the
earth’s
offers of “love” and “satisfaction”,
when GOD’S REALITY is WAAAY beyond our
greatest FANTASY. < Last week at the
Riverside reunion, Joy prayed that very
sentence for me, and I know
it was the Holy Spirit speaking straight to my soul. TRUTH!
Or when I feel unworthy
after sinning or getting distracted from God … He meets
us where we are and
takes us back instantaneously!
“But YOU are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people belonging to God, so that you may declare the praises of Him
who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
-
1 Peter 2:9
“How precious is Your
steadfast love, O God!” – Psalm 36:7A
1
John 4:7-19 =
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever
loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Anyone who does not
love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among
us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through
him. 10 In
this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another. 12 No
one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is
perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he
in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we
have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world.
15 Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love
that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and
God abides in him. 17 By
this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of
judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love,
but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and
whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
Psalm 13:5-6
“But I have trusted in Your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in Your
salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt
bountifully
with me.”
Isaiah 64:8, I’ll leave you with
that:
“But
now, O Lord, You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You are our
potter;
We are all the work of
Your hand.”
Remember
that God created you.
He is
proud of you SIMPLY because You are His.
Relax
and rejoice at that simple truth.
Let
Him mold you into the best clay pot possible – it’s wondrous!
Trust
that His hands of guidance, His love, His life – is always enough.
Merry
Christmas. :)
(Blog posts coming soon: "Many Seasons ... my 2013", and hopefully "Should" and The Gospel)
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