1 John 4:10 says,
"In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His
son to be the propitiation for our sins."
1 John 2:2 says,
"And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only
but also for the whole world."
John 3:16 says,
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
1 Peter 5:6-7 says,
"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for
you."
This is the
definition of love, we didn't even love God but that didn't matter; He loved us
so much anyways that He sent His only Son to win our favor, to bless and pardon
us, simply because He loves us.
So I am a sinner.
Shocker, I know. But you see, what absolutely blows my mind is that God loves
me. The God of the universe that spoke the world into existence and
meticulously designed the human cells and the atmosphere and perfectly
positioned the planets, cares about me.(1 Peter 5:7) I don’t know why, I just know that He does.
And what's even more amazing is that He loved me first. He knew that I would
sin. He knew that I would fall away from Him, even when I knew that He loved
me. But still He chose to love me and to give up His one and only Son to
forgive my sins.
I cannot even
express how much this humbles me. But still I mess up all the time. I trip and
fall. And He keeps on loving. He keeps on caring. He keeps on forgiving. And
this isn't just a promise for me. This is for the whole world! I can't do
anything to be worthy of the love that He has given me. It doesn't matter how
much I serve or give or lay down my life, I wouldn't be able to earn this
perfect love, yet He gives it so freely.
See what great love
the Father has lavished on us that we should be called Children of God! (1 John
3:1) How unworthy am I to be called a child of God? But get this, God's Son was
given as a gift to remove His wrath from me(propitiation). It was explained to
me like this: Imagine two cliffs and on one cliff is God and on the other cliff
is me. There is a huge gap in the middle and there is no way for me to get
across to God. But then Jesus steps in as the bridge so that I can get to God.
He lays down His life so that I can be forgiven and have eternal life. How
insane is that?
So, God has this
great love for me but I have a hard time loving my friends over really petty
things like when they leave hair in the drain. How selfish am I? What gives me
the right to be upset over that? I want to agape love like my Daddy loves. I
want to get to be able to honestly say that I would lay down my life for
someone no matter what they have done to me.(John 15:13)
Application:
Today, I am going to
write down 1 John 4:10 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 on pieces of paper and tape
them to the inside of my wardrobe so that every time I open it, I am reminded
of God's amazing love for me and how I am supposed to love others.
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