How far does God’s love go? Will that constant sin you commit stop the flow of love? Does God care about you, even when you are rebellious toward him?
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.
The amazing love of God, reaches to the vilest sinner and has no preference. Plainly, God loves ALL people, no matter what you’ve said or done in your lifetime. God’s Love is unconditional, and His mercy endures forever and ever. He wants to see His children following Him, but if we stumble, His grace extends far enough to cover us! We must always lean on God in whatever we go through, that’s why Proverbs 3:6 tells us to acknowledge God in ALL our ways. He knows what is best for us.
The Depth of Love
The devil is clever at making us feel less than worthy of going to God for help. Do not be fooled by this tactic, Jesus’ amazing love never fails, and no matter what you go through in your life, God will always be there right by your side. He promised us in Hebrews 13:5, that He would never leave nor forsake us, why worry? Ponder these verses of Scripture:
Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him”.
Romans 5:10 “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”.
What great love is this! God’s love was so strong for us that while we were sinners, while we transgressed His Law, neglected Him, and did our own thing, He still sent His Son to die for our sins. He knew our sinful thoughts and actions, He knew that we would not talk to Him as much as we should, He knew that we would forget to read His Word and be reluctant to go into His House, yet he extended His everlasting arms of mercy toward us! 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love, and if this is so we must get to know God in order to understand His great love. His compassion and concern for the well being of His children, stretch way further than you can imagine. There is nothing you can do to cause God not to love you. Jesus not only said in John 15:13 that the greatest love that can be shown is one laying down his life for his friends, He went and displayed the action. He displayed the greatest aspect of love. His unselfish nature and compassionate character allowed Him to look at a bunch of rebellious sinners, and give His innocent blood so they would have a chance at Eternal life in Paradise with Him. Love was so important to the Lord, that He based His entire Law on it. Check this out:
Matthew 22:37 “And Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’”.
Matthew 22:38 “This is the first and great commandment”.
Matthew 22:39 “And the second is like unto it, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’”
Matthew 22: 40 “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”.
Love to God and love to our fellow man are the greatest duties for the Christian. We must remember this in our daily actions, and strive to live up to the mandate that Christ has charged us with. In the world that we live in, everyone is about getting revenge and getting even with others that have done us wrong. This isn’t the way to go about handling our conflicts tough. Romans 12:19-20 tells us that we should leave it up to God to repay; He has the final say, not us. When we have this type of love we can feed our enemies when they are hungry, and give them drink when they are thirsty and “be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”, verse 21 says. You see in this world, we are supposed to be bringing others to Jesus. When you show love to persons who have wronged you, it may spark a change in them and cause them to accept Jesus as their personal Lord & Saviour. You see, love brings salvation! Once we have love first of all for the Living God and for our fellow man, we won’t want to do anything to offend either of them. The Bible tells us that God is love and so if we have God in our lives, we have love! Love is the answer for all the troubles we face in this world, the hearts of men are turning cold and self is being exalted. Instead of lifting up the Lord Jesus in our everyday lives, people use terms like “I’m doin me” and “its all about me” to govern their thinking and everyday lives. Submission to a Higher Power is becoming a thing of the past and consequently we only live for today’s satisfaction. We need to get back to loving the way Jesus did, seeking to hurt and seek revenge on our neighbours is of the devil and should not be a practice for the Christian. Imagine if Jesus took offence to the sins we as a human race have committed and decide not to die, we would have no hope of one day being totally free from sin. Jesus led by example, and if we want to truly be followers of Him, we must show the Agape love that does not discriminate but seeks to reach all.
Love & Mercy
The love that Jesus Christ showed and continues to this human race should boggle your mind. How many times have you ditched Him for some secular activity? Going to His own House and purposely not paying attention? How many times have you chose reading fictional books instead of His Holy Word? Do you keep the line of communication with Him open? Despite all our sin, Jesus stand ready to wash us clean in His cleansing blood. All we have to do is ask Him, He desires to see all of His children saved. No matter how vile of a sinner you think you are, Jesus is a better Saviour. There is nothing that you can do, say, or think that if you confess, you won’t be forgiven of. Jesus said so in His Word:
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
Sometimes in this Christian journey, we may feel down discouraged, and unworthy to even worship the Living God. We need not feel this way, Jesus knew our hurting before we even told Him, He just wants us to acknowledge His Supreme Power; but it actuality, He has never left your side. The power of God is so awesome that it can turn the vilest sinner into the most effective minister. Think about it: If God loved us so much that He would send His only Son to die for a fallen race that he knew beforehand would miss the mark of His Holy Standard, then His love mercy, and grace will extend to you, no matter what circumstance you find yourself in. Try this: as soon as you wake up in the morning, blink your eyes and move your hands. That is the evidence of the depth of love and mercy that God has for you! We as human beings are only breeding grounds for evil, lies and corruption, we have nothing good to offer to God. Why then does he continue to plead with us and allow His blood to cover our many transgressions? There is only one answer: Love!
Friends, the devil is real and he is very busy. Anyone who doesn’t believe in how much power he has hasn’t been attacked by him. His only purpose in this life is to get you on the highway to hell! He wants to be like the Most High and he will put obstacles in your spiritual pathway and in your mind that will cause you to doubt God an ultimately stray from the faith. The Christian cannot allow this to happen. We MUST rely on Jesus for He is the ONLY hope we have to even make it through even one day. In our last presentation we talked about how we are wrestling against powers and principalities of the devil and that we need spiritual armour to win this fight. The devil is busier than ever because he knows that he has but a short time, we must cling to the Cross of Christ like we never did before. I encourage you, even if you have been walking the devils way for days, months, or years to do like Jesus did in Matthew 4:10 and say ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’! The Love of God is so big that you cannot get around it, and He will accept you back into the fold of saints bound for the Kingdom. Just as Jesus said in the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Matthew 18:12-14, so is our Father’s love so strong for us that He will search for the one lost sheep even if he has 99 already in His fold. There is a conflict going on in this world today, between good and evil, between Christ and Satan and only if we accept and abide in Jesus amazing love will we be able to overcome. Ponder Jesus words:
John 10:10 “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”.
Choose Jesus and His love today. No matter where you have been in your life, what you have done or how you have felt towards God, He prepared a place in His kingdom for you, He wants you there! When we truly submit to God’s love, we realize its life changing power, and its ability to turn our lives completely around. You don’t have to do anything to please Jesus, He will come knocking at YOUR door! His love for you will cause Him to seek you and get you out of any situation you may find yourself in. All you have to do is believe and do what He tells you to. When we experience this for our selves, it will captivate us and give us a peace inside that passes all understanding because we know that Jesus will be with us in whatever situation we go through and He will forgive us when we go astray and heal our spiritual lives. These words of this gospel song will then come alive in us:
“Think about His Love. Think about His goodness. Think about His grace that brought us through! For as high as the heavens above, great is the measure of our Father’s Love!”
God bless you!
