God's Love Prevails

--Many thanks to my daughter Liz for today's post.

God’s love is for you and God’s love prevails.

Mark 12:28-31

“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus Christ makes it perfectly clear. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and we are to love our neighbors as we ourselves. These are the greatest commandments.

But let me propose a question to you:

How can you expect to properly love your neighbor as yourself if you don’t love yourself first?

As born again sons and daughters of God, we know we have many things promised to us in God’s word, but sometimes, it might be hard for us to believe we personally deserve God’s promises in our lives.

Perhaps we have done something or are doing something we know is not in accordance with God’s word.

Perhaps we have caused someone to suffer pain.

Perhaps someone has caused us suffering.

Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to recognize when we are out of alignment with God’s Word—but any of these or a number of other things can create thoughts of shame, guilt, self-condemnation, and unworthiness. These things create a hindrance to our receiving God’s great love. In order to properly love ourselves, we must be able to accept and believe that God’s great mercy, peace, abundance, joy—and most importantly God’s love—are for us.

I John 3:20

“For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”

Even when our very own hearts are condemning us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. No matter how we see ourselves, no matter what we have done or what has been done to us, He sees us as righteous and accepted through the accomplishments of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:3-7

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him

in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”

We are holy and without blame before God. In love, God predestinated us to be his children, according to the good pleasure of his will. We are accepted in the beloved, or in the beloved one, Jesus Christ. This is how God perceives us and there is nothing we can do to change that fact.

Our God is now and always was a God of great compassion and mercy.

Lamentations 3:21-23

“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

In the Old Testament, they did not have the ability to be reconciled to God that we have, they did not have the savior we have in Jesus Christ and yet we can see time and time again that God was understanding, compassionate, and merciful.

Psalm 103:8-19

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;”

That God is still our God; and He is still just as understanding, compassionate and merciful to us, even in our most desperate hours.

Psalm 62:8

“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.”

When we are in need, God wants us to feel that we can come to him and take refuge in Him, unafraid, even if our hearts are condemning us.

Hebrews 4:14 – 16

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Jesus Christ understands what we face when we come up against temptations. He is our high priest and he is not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was in all points tempted just as we are, yet without sin. He has been there. He understands. This is the savior God has given us. We don’t have to be afraid to come boldly unto the throne of grace…despite our pasts, despite our presents, despite our mistakes, despite our shortcomings, despite any condemnation in our heart. God wants us to know that we can come boldly unto the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

1 Peter 5:7 tells us God wants us to be “casting all our cares upon Him (God).” Why? “because he cares for us.”

Just how much does God care for us?

Psalm 139:1-10

“O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

God knows us so deeply that he is acquainted with all of our ways. He cares for us so much that there is nowhere we can go, no situation we can find ourselves in, and nothing we can do which can prevent Him from always being able to be there, leading us and holding us by His hand.

Ephesians 2:4-9

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

God’s mercy for us is so rich than he sent his only begotten Son to die on our behalf while we were still dead in our sins. This was not because we were or are so wonderful, it was not because we were or are so perfect in carrying out his word…it was and is the gift of God. We will never be saved by our own works, or our own ability. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow it is always by grace that we are saved through faith or believing.

Colossians 1:12-14

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins”

Through Jesus Christ’s blood, we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. Again, we have that forgiveness not because of our own works, but because we have believed. We have been made righteous without works.

What does it look like when God forgives someone who has been made righteous without works?

Romans 4:6-8

“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

To impute something to someone is to credit something to them or to lay responsibility for something on someone. When God forgives us, it means that he will never, ever credit our sins against us ever again. He will never, ever bring them up and attribute them to us. God does not think of you as the sum total of your past mistakes and failures, he thinks of you as one of his children.

This is how God wants us to also think of ourselves.

Philippians 3:12-14

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

We are told to forget those things which are behind. You might think, 'Well wait a minute, how can I forget something?' We can choose to forget those things which are behind by choosing to not dwell upon them when they come to our remembrance, to not replay them over and over but instead to reach forward to those things which are before and to think about ourselves according to what God’s word says about us.

Philippians 3:15

“Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”

God will help us in this effort and if in any thing we are otherwise minded, God can and will reveal that unto us.

God’s will for your life is not for you to sit in the mistakes and pain of your past or your present, in brokenness, or in defeat. God’s will is not for you to wallow in shame or guilt or self-condemnation. God wants you to have a happy, prospering, joyful life now. Let’s press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.