i've been reminded over the past couple days of just how awesome God's love is for us. i was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, catching up on life, and found out he had gone thru some incredibly rough times over the past year while i was at school. he admits it was his own fault, because of choices he made. he turned his back on God and tried to have nothing to do with Him. he was miserable, and his life fell apart...literally. he eventually realized he couldn't live without his Savior he'd tried to ignore and decided there was no real joy that compared to the joy of knowing Christ. he's getting back on track again, and even though he has a ton of consequences he's dealing with right now from his past, he knows it's the right thing to do.
how deep...how wide...the Father's love for us! like...i never really grasped it in this sense until now - but God loves us SO MUCH that He's willing to let us go, willing to let us have freedom of choice and choose to follow Him or not. He's willing to let us turn our back on Him and willing to sit back and let us make our own decisions. and He is patient and waiting to receive us back into His comforting arms the second we realize we do need Him. that's how much He loves us, He's willing to let us go thru the darkest moments if that's what it takes to wake us up. to paint even a small picture of what i'm trying to say --- let's say you decide you don't need your parents after all. you don't need their love, their support, their protection, their... friendship, even. you move out and rarely, if ever, give them a call to let them know how you are, what you're up to. can you imagine the pain and heartache your parents would feel? yet they let you go and live your life, because you technically are an adult and can make decisions on your own. they love you so much, but they know that if they don't let you fall on your face from your decisions, you'll never learn and you'll never realize their love for you.
dude...God's love is amazing.
Galations 4:4-7 --- "1How 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. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,[a]we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." (www.biblegateway.com)
i love that passage. there is so much i could talk on from just that passage, but i need to get to bed.
let God captivate you - your heart, your mind.
keep it real.
~jen~
1 comment:
'allo Jen!
Just me... Thanks for the encouragement --- I have that song posted on the wall at the office and I sing it over and over and over again (and no, not to myself --- OUT LOUD!). "It was my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life; I know that it is finished." I don't know if we have a mutual "friend" or not, but strange, I know someone who's gone through that exact same stuff the last year or so --- and he's come back around too. God continually amazes me --- just when I think all hope is lost, I remember my Father is never far away and never turns a deaf ear to my cries...
Rejoicing because "his wounds have paid my ransom,"
Valerie
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