Thought for Tuesday, July 24th

July 24, 2012

You are Lavishly Loved

There is no greater love than the love with which you are loved by God.

His love for you looked past your sins, your faults, you failures, past, present or future and enabled Him to send His only Son whom He cherishes and loves to die for you, so that you could have life in Him.

God being all powerful, all wise and all knowing and to whom nothing is impossible: could have surely found a different way to redeem humanity.  Yet He wanted us to know how lavishly He loved us because He gave not something that cost Him nothing but rather, the most cherished and special sacrifice He could give.

It doesn’t matter to God where we came from, what we look like, who we are or what we may or may not have accomplished:  it only matters to Him that we are a soul He created, a life He gave and a person He loves.

We who are dead because of sin, can have life and life more abundantly because we are loved with a love that has no limit, knows no measure and surpasses all possible boundaries: it can not be contained, conquered, defeated; nor can it be suppressed.  The only thing we can do to it or with it is accept it or reject it.

“Who, being loved, is poor?”

-       Oscar Wilde

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1: John 3:1

Knowing you are loved so greatly [so lavishly] why would you want to reject such an amazing and wonderful gift and why would you want to choose to remain dead rather to be allowed by and because of His love to live.

Today’s Prayer

Father, your love is wider than the ocean, deeper than the sea and I am so amazed, delighted and thankful that you are willing to love a sinner just like me.

“When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus “

-  Lyrics from ‘Heart of Worship’ by Matt Redman