God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! –Jeremiah 31:3 The Message
Perhaps one of the reasons we find it hard to believe we are loved by God is that we see His love through our own lens.
Or, we measure His love by ourselves, and the imperfect broken love of others.
Ah, but if we could but see ourselves–through His eyes!
Yes, then, how different things would look.
Hurting Humanity
I remember hearing Joyce Meyer once say, “Hurting people hurt people.”
When we search for our worth and value in the eyes of other broken people, like ourselves, is it any wonder we believe we are UN-loveable?
This is the question I asked myself, after years of believing the opinions of folks in my life who told me, “I was too broken to be loved.”
They believed “the problem” was clearly with me, and I thought, “You’re right.”
So, I went to the Source of Love, God Himself.
I didn’t know much about love, but I knew this much, that if anyone had the answer I was looking for? It had to be Him.
So, I asked God to teach me…
It wasn’t a complicated prayer.
No, thee’s or thou’s, or anything religious.
I was a desperate woman–way too desperate for complicated.
I was desolate, and so hopeless; contemplating suicide.
If God was real.
If His love was real.
I desperately wanted Him to teach me.
I simply prayed: God, will You please teach me how much You love me.
So, He did!
And, here’s what I hope you will see…
God has always loved you.
He will always love you.
And, He wants you to believe that with all your heart.
Jesus will go to The Ends of the Earth
God’s love will chase you down to the ends of the Earth!
Please listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to you:
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Romans 8:31-39 The Message
Vulnerable and Honest
In The Divine Romance, Brian Simmons writes:
When you know that God sees you and still loves you, you find the courage to live an authentic life. The longer you stand in His presence, being vulnerable and honest with Him , shackles of people pleasing begin to melt away. His opinion of you becomes the only one that matters. He understands you, even when no one else does. This life of freedom releases you to be yourself, to realize how fully you depend upon the Lord, and to live humbly before Him and others. Open your life to His penetrating gaze and find confidence in His never-ending love.
–Those Eyes
Women With Destiny 