" God loves you!"
How many times have we Christians heard this statement or one like it? We've heard it more times than we can count, but how many of us have actually taken time to think about what this means? Even if we think about it, most of us probably forget about it and go back to our old lives. That's not what we're supposed to do, though. When we realize just how much God loves us, it's supposed to change us. We tend to not let that happen, though. We're so caught up in our lives that we think we have no room or time to consider God's love. Before I go any farther, I'm going to share a short personal story about God starting to reveal the awesome fullness of his love to me.
Near the end of April of 2015, I had a day where nothing seemed to be going right for me. No matter what I did, I never felt like I was doing as well as I thought I should. I got frustrated by the smallest things, and everything reminded me of how inadequate I felt. Finally, I had enough. I went back to my empty dorm room and finally cried out to God. I ended up lying facedown on the floor, crying my eyes out while pouring all my frustration out to him. I felt indescribably unclean and unforgivably sinful. I repeatedly asked God how he could stand to look at me in my dirtiness. I asked how he could care for me. In my desperation, I begged him to show me just how much he loves me. Instead of hearing an answer in words, I simply remembered the few times I've seen the ocean, as well as the times I've seen the stars. I remembered how vast and endless those two things seemed, and God simply said, "I love you more than that."
That is the extent of our creator's love for his creation. He loves us wider and deeper than the oceans, and higher and wider than the heavens. Paul writes in the book of Ephesians, "And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is."
It is humanly impossible to fully grasp just how much God loves us, but we can at least make an effort to think about it more often and be comforted. We need to remember this:
God loves us, not matter how badly we've messed up.
God loves us, no matter how we view ourselves. We are beautiful and worthy in his eyes.
God loves us, even when we forget to love him back.
In the book of Romans, Paul says, "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow -- not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below -- indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
This is something we all can think about whenever we feel nothing is right. When we feel as if there is nothing left, there is. God still loves us! Everything that God is, the only thing that has always been the same, is the same now and will always be the same in the future. That is why God's name is "I am." He is not "I was" or "I will be," but he is "I am." God is "I am," and what does the Bible tell us that God is? God is love.
"But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." -- 1 John 4:8
