Tag Archives: the love of god

Incomprehensible Love

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Excerpted from From Eternity to Here~Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God by Frank Viola, Chapter 7: Fallen Yet Cherished

“…run to the Lord when you sin, not from Him.

…He saw your mistakes before you ever made them.  So He’s not surprised by them.  Nor did they prevent Him from choosing you to be His before you penetrated the womb of your mother.  In fact, distancing yourself from the Lord due to a

guilt headache and a condemnation hangover

hurts Him far more than the sin that created those feelings.  (Ponder that last sentance for a moment.)…Hiding from the Lord is a

spiritually-transmitted disease. 

It’s in our bloodstream and the marrow of our bones.  It began with the first man who hid Himself from God in shame (Gen. 3.8-10).  But just as He did with Adam, God clothed your nakedness.  Not with skins of animals, but with the righteousness of His own Son.  For this reason, the Lord invites you to love Him despite your fallenness.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5.21 NASV

You can chisel it in stone: the Lord’s love is given to you without strings or conditions…your good works (or lack thereof) do not affect His love for you…God loves you simpley because He chose you in His Son and  He loves His Son without condition.

He loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31.3).

So take heart: you are some one that God so loves.  He has drawn you to Himself.  Whenever you turn to Him, you are ushered before the smiling face of a God whose heart beats with unfailing kindness. 

Are you overtaken with a sense of unworthiness?

Are you humbled with your own sinfulness?  Let me remind you.  When your  Lord hung on that bloody cross, He was in far worse condition than you or I could ever be in.  He was made to be sin (Isaiah 53.4, 2 Cor. 5.21)…the sins of the the worls – past, present, and future – were all laid upon Him, and He became sin personified.  And yet, the Father still loved Him.

All that to say, in the moment when you feel the most unworthy, you are the most welcome.

[Read: Hebrews 4.16; Ephesians 3.12; 1 John 1:9, 2:1-2; Revelation 12:10-11]

Consequently, if the “accuser of the brethern” accuses you or me of some sin, the Lord’s response is, ‘It’s too late!  I’ve already fallen in love with them.  It’s too late!  I’ve already graced them out of…my merciful nature.  It’s too late!  They are acquitted.  They are forgiven.  They are cleansed by My Son’s blood.’

This ought to move you.  This ought to impress you.  This ought to baffle and overwhelm you.

Oh, the unimaginable depth of the love of Christ.

What amazing love.  What flawless love.  What unshakeable love.  What irrevocable love.  This is the love with which your God loves you…”

When will I get it?…Jeanie

When did God Start to Love Me?

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When did You start to love me, Father?  When I made my first confession of faith?  Or the thirty-second one?  Was it when I got seriously committed to my Bible-reading plan or more regular in my times of extended prayer?

Because it seems earlier.  I have known Your love as I have received each grandchild into my arms for the first time.  I have understood Your devotion in raising my children from the first to the last, all the way until it was finished.  When they were birthed from my body into the world, I grasped the glorious moment of man’s creation as “heaven and earth” passed through me.  At the altar of marriage I sensed the abiding gift of Your love over my life – mine to receive.

So when did You begin to love me?

Zechariah 12.1  Was it when You stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth, could You already comprehend the spirit You would form in me?

Ecclesiastes 11.5  Was it when you were forming my body in my mother’s womb – just as surely as You created the paths for the winds?

Psalm 139.13-16  Or was it when You created my inmost being, as You were knitting me together in my mother’s womb?

Could it have been before that, even?  Did You already “get” me, decide to love me when I was being made in the ‘secret place,’  woven together in the depths of the earth, where already, You understood the look, the frame of me?

Before even one of my days had come to be, You had already written the book, told the story of my life – every single day of it.  Did You like what You had written?  Could You see me as a character You loved and wanted to follow?  You are my Author.  Are You finishing my story in a way that brings You joy?

Job 10.8-12  You gave me life and watched over my spirit, the soul of me,  even as Your hands touched me, shaped me like clay and molded and made me.  When You were knitting me together and clothing me with skin and flesh – is that when You began to love me?

Isaiah 49.1-2  Before I was even born You called me and at my birth You named me.  You gave me unmistakeable characteristics.  Why?

Jeremiah 1.4-5  Before I was even born, You set me apart and made an appointment for my life.  Before I was born You knew me.  You knew me.  How?  How did You know?

When did You start to love me?

Galatians 1.15-16   Was it when you set me apart from birth, calling me by Your grace?  Is this when You started loving me?

I don’t know when.  I cannot comprehend how.  But I am so thankful for Your love.  That You – so loved – even me.

“How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered.  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, You are still with me.”  Psalm 139. 17-18  NLT