--Many thanks to my daughter Liz for today's post.
God’s love is for you and God’s love prevails.
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.
