He Loves You

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute… No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” Rom.8:35 & 37.

It is difficult to sin with Jesus right beside you, extremely difficult. When you read Psalm 139:1-12 [please read], you will quickly realize that there is nowhere you can go to hide from God. God is everywhere. Jesus is near. Regardless of our proximity to Jesus, we still need to get His attention. Married people will attest to the fact that a wife may be in the same room with her husband and not have his attention. Sometimes, even though Jesus is near we do not have His attention. So what do we have to do to get His attention? A lot of us in an attempt to get Jesus’ attention, start by listing the things we have done well. I tithed, came early to church, showed love to my neighbor, and fed the poor. And sometimes directly or indirectly, we make that a basis for getting Jesus’ attention. Other people just try to show Jesus how they love Him and have sacrificed a lot for Him. Please read John 11:1-44. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were Jesus’ best friends apart from his disciples. “Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” John 11:1-3. Mary sacrificed her life investment at the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. But she didn’t say, “Lazarus, the brother to the woman who sowed that mighty seed into Your ministry, is sick”. Mary did not say, “I am the one that wiped Your feet with my hair Lord, my brother is sick”. In other words, Mary did not remind Jesus of what she had done. The word they sent was, “Jesus the one you love is sick”. It is not about how much we love God; it is about how much He loves us. Yes, you love God; thank God for that. But when you go to God, it is about how much He loves you. What is that need before you today? Now imagine going to God and saying, “the one whom you love is struggling to pay his children’s school fees, Lord”. Or ‘Lord, the one that You really love is struggling to buy petrol in his car’. Or ‘Lord, the one that You really, really love needs encouraging’. I think that’s a better way to pray. It is actually very comforting because you know that it is based on His love for you and not your love for Him. “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” 1John4:10.

Prayer: Thank You for loving me the way that You do Father. I receive Your love with my whole heart and I pray that Your love will overflow me, in Jesus Name.