(I totally put lotion on for this photo- dry hands ha ha!)
I don't know about you, but I am always asking God for a revelation of love, of His love for me. I want to know how much he loves me, what he thinks and says about me, what I mean to him. I am reading The Well by Mark Hall (Lead singer of Casting Crowns) and he said a great quote today: "What is true about you is what God says about you." I love that!
I was reading in Psalms recently and I came across chapter 136, in which the psalmist declares "His Love endures forever" 26 times!! I remember reading it and thinking, ok I have got to look up some more on this "love of the God", because I am thinking it is pretty significant for him to say this over an over....What I am noticing is that people who know they are loved by God are mighty for his kingdom's cause.
The apostle John always referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. I believe that it wasn't that John was the only one Jesus loved, but that he understood the love of Jesus. He was loved just as much as any other disciple, he just "got it". I want to get it. All the other disciples scattered when Jesus was accused & taken captive, even Peter who said even if all else deny you, I never will. (In essence He was boasting and saying I love you Jesus, I don't know about these other guys, but I got your back.) Well we know what happened, when the first hint of persecution came that night he was denying and lying! But where was John at the crucifixion? The disciple who said Jesus loves me....He was at the foot of the cross, following wholeheartedly his savior till the bitter end (as it seemed at the time).
I began to realize, I need to focus on Jesus' love for me. I am human and "conditional", a lot of times I change based on circumstances. What if I don't trust in my love for God, but I put my trust in His love for me? Which, by the way His love for us NEVER CHANGES, it is UNCONDITIONAL, It ENDURES FOREVER, it NEVER FAILS. I think the children's song "Jesus loves me" has got it right. I need to be singing that a lot more and burn that truth into my mind. Isn't it beautiful that one of the first songs that we teach children about Jesus is key to living victoriously as conquerors in Christ. I pray that I am rooted and established in love, that I have a revelation of God's love daily, that I remember through everything : Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so.
Paul encouraged the Ephesians by telling them how he was praying for them. I now pray these verses for myself and others as God puts them on my heart:
"16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19
That is what I am talking about! I want to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I want to sit at his feet and receive and grasp His love for me. When I have a revelation of his love I have a revelation of Him, because "God IS Love" 1 John 4:8. When you are filled with His love, you are filled with Him, and if you are filled you can pour out into others the same love you received. "We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19. So if you are having a hard time loving someone, go to the throne of grace and receive His love for you and help for your time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
beautiful!
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