Wherever we are in our life journeys, God is drawing us to understand that He loves us just as we are and desires to personally walk through life with us.
God’s Everlasting Love
Wherever we are in our life journeys, God is drawing us to understand that He loves us just as we are and desires to personally walk through life with us. Nothing we have ever done or ever will do can change the depth of His love for us. Jeremiah 31: 3 (NKJ) states, “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness, I have drawn you.’”
Many struggle with accepting and living in God’s unconditional love. Some falsely believe we must earn it by following rules or doing good works, but these attempts are religious works of the flesh which never result in lasting kingdom value. Yes, we absolutely desire to follow His truths in Scripture and to serve Him, but we are to do so because we love Him, not to gain His love. His love is unconditional, and He sent His Son to provide access to Him and the incredible lives and freedom He designed.
We Can Fully Trust Him
God always has our best interests at heart and will never abandon or betray us. However, many find it difficult to trust others, including God. We have often been hurt in relationships. Commitments, love, and integrity have been set aside when the stakes were high enough. Accordingly, manipulation, deceit, and betrayal may have been normal parts of our lives.
However, God is “all in.” Ephesians 3:17-19 says, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” This incredible love is beyond human understanding but can be comprehended through His Spirit. His desire for us to know His love and experience the lives He designed is so strong that John 3:16 shares, “For God so lived the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Most of us can hardly imagine what this sacrifice cost Him. What doubt of His love can survive in the light of this gift?
Incredibly, His love is so great that He also gives us freedom of choice. We may accept or reject Christ’s sacrifice. We may indeed receive Christ but then reject His Lordship and desire for an ever-deepening relationship as we follow our own paths. Regardless, His love for us will not change, even though we endure much loss when we walk away.
What Chains Bind You?
From Separation and Brokenness to Life
As noted above, personal wounds often cause us to lose freedom, joy, and identity. We set up protective barriers and suffer differing levels of anger, anxiety, trauma, and distrust. These block our relationships, not only with humans, but also with God.
My background included love, but it was based on performance and perfection. Accordingly, all relationships, including mine with Christ, felt performance centered. Anxiety, perfection, loss of sleep, and anger prevailed. After high school I turned to alcohol. I “thought” it relieved my tensions, but it began to imprison me. Though saved and a church attender, I had a very broken view of God and little understanding of His love. My life fell into deep crisis. During my early twenties, my plea became, “There must be more to being a Christian than this. Please help me, God.” I began attending different churches and asking for help. Although I was warmly welcomed, no one understood, and I only received books.
One Sunday, as I dressed for church, I looked up and saw Christ standing in my living room. His projection of personal love was incredible, and He said, “Nothing you have ever done or ever will do can change the depth of my love for you.” I instantly knew His love was total and unchangeable. I could neither increase it nor lose it through my actions. He disappeared. (Unbelievably, I forgot this blessing for several weeks. I think it was because I had surrendered so much ground to the enemy that he could temporarily block it.) I went to church and responded to an alter call, begging God that this was my last hope. A liberal assistant pastor smiled and gave me another book. I left in utter defeat. Thankfully, God had other plans. The evangelical lead pastor soon visited. He listened, loved me, and helped me understand God’s gifts of love, faith and forgiveness. He then mentored me and connected me with mature Christians who embraced and included me in their walks with Christ.
Christ radically transformed me over the next year, guiding me through difficult struggles, and then introduced me to the incredible woman who would become my wife. A year earlier she would have walked away. She was and is the only human who has loved me unconditionally. My often-difficult journey with Christ continues as He embraces me in His transforming love.
What is Your Story?
Christ meets us where we are and walks with us in His love and power to develop the fullness of the incredible life He designed. You may say, “Christ has never revealed Himself to me as He did to you. Therefore, I reject Him.” Please consider the following. Have you asked Him to do so, with a sincere and open heart? Have you actively pursued Him, beginning with the New Testament? He is pursuing you. Will you open your heart and choose to embrace His love?
Learning To Love God, Yourself, and Others
Learning to live in Christ’s love is an incredible and individualized journey between us and God’s Spirit. Mark 12: 30-31 tells us, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Christ speaks these truths not only as the greatest commandments but also as His very words of life and freedom. We are only able to walk in these commandments as we receive Him and permit His Spirit to be the Lord of our lives. Then, set free from all fear regarding our relationship with Him and our ability to trust Him, we learn to rest in Him, regardless of circumstances. When we no longer have the strength to stand, He enables us to trust in His love and purpose. When we cannot love either ourselves or others, His Spirit within provides His love and revitalizes us.
Personal filters strongly impact how we engage in life and deal with others. As God’s Spirit continuously transforms us, He replaces broken filters with healthy perspectives founded on His love and truth. When He is our filter, we know who is speaking into our lives (God, the enemy, ourselves, or others) and how to process all inputs through Him. God’s voice is always edifying, even when He is correcting and exhorting us. It may not “feel” good, but it always brings freedom and life. Words that result in us feeling unloved and of little or no value are not from the Spirit of God. Reject them as either from the enemy or your broken images from the past. God loves you unconditionally. Nothing can change the depth of His love for you.
Conclusion
Please consider the following under the Spirit’s revelation.
• Do you absolutely know that the Lord loves you just as you are?• Do you agree that nothing you have ever done or ever will do can change the depth of God’s love for you?
• Are you holding onto shame and guilt over things He forgave and forgot the moment you asked for His forgiveness?
• Are these “ghosts of the past” breaking your heart? If so, what does God want you to do with these, through the help of His Spirit?
• What stirred your soul as you read this? What excited or challenged you?
• What kind of loving and personal relationship do you have with Christ, and what relationship does He want with you?
• What actions is He guiding you to begin with Him?
I’d love to hear from you at curtp.martinauthor.com.
Author’s Bio: Curt Martin is an author, speaker, seminar leader, and organization consultant. God has filled him with the passion to see every individual and organization become the unique and incredible masterpiece God designed. Little touches Him more than helping awaken all God placed within you, so you thrive in His freedom, purpose, and power as you learn to walk in God’s Spirit. Only those who commit to this journey experience the fullness of living God’s victorious life. Articles include excerpts from his award winning book, “Whose Life Are You Living.”
Here is some related reading for you: 5 Ways God Shows His Love For You
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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