Encouragement

THE LOOK OF LOVE

by Christian Belyea
12/14/20
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     We all know God loves us, theologically, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8). But sometimes keeping that fact not just in our heads but in our hearts can be challenging. As we walk through this wearisome world, caught up in our daily routines, it can be so easy to forget that God absolutely adores us, cherishes us and treasures us with all His heart.  It can also be easy to forget that when God tells us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength that He feels the same way about us!

     Let’s go back to the beginning, before there ever was a heaven and an earth, when God imagined us in His heart and fell in love with us then and there. For God says in His Word: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart” (Jer 1:5). So, God imagined us way before He ever created us. And once He had imagined us, He yearned for us to be in existence. Yes, God knew Adam and Eve would sin. He also knew that sin would mess up mankind’s mind and our relationship with God. So, He could have scrapped the whole project before He even created the cosmos. But God foresaw us, and He longed for us just as surely as the heavens declare His handiwork. Hence, He created us and prepared a plan to redeem us because seemingly He could not bear the thought of spending eternity without us. That is why He surrendered His own sinless Son to be killed on a cross as atonement for our sins. That is how much he treasures us.

     And to prove it, no matter how wicked we were, God still knocked on the door of our hearts through Jesus. He knocked even louder when some of our hearts were boulders beating behind our breasts.  For it is also written: “God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). Yes, our loving, heavenly Father wanted us so badly His heart must have burned in His bosom. Oh, He knew how awful we would behave at times. He foresaw all the instances when we would miss the mark. And He envisioned the sins we would sometimes surrender to before and even after He saved us. But He let His Son die for us, anyway. He called us, anyway. He reconciled us to Himself, anyway.

     And just as an aside, because God shows favouritism to no one (Rom 2:11), He loves us just as much as He loves Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, King David, Ruth, Esther, Christ’s disciples and all the champions of the faith in both the Old and New Testaments. To God, we too are champions of the faith. How comforting. This sweet, sensitive, soulful God loves us beyond comprehension!

     In fact, our Creator is so crazy about us that we are always in His thoughts. In Psalm 139:17,18, King David gives us a glimpse of what is on God’s mind when he says to our LORD, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered. I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand.”

     Sadly though, we may sometimes forget that God is always thinking about us and working on our behalf every moment of every day. Often, we just think that we had a great day, and that’s that. We sometimes fail to realize that it was our tender-hearted God working behind the scenes to make it such a great day for us. Just as it is written: “The LORD directs our steps” (Prov 20:24). And even when we do have a bad day, it could have been a whole lot worse. In fact, if God hadn’t been supporting us, we never would have even gotten through it. Besides, we have God’s Word that no matter how deadly a day we have been dealt He will surely bring something great out of it. And that something great will glorify God and be of eternal benefit to us. Just as it is written: “All things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28).

     Yes, we sometimes forget that our gracious God always loves us. It’s particularly easy to forget this when things are going badly. But truth never changes. God loves us on good days.  God loves us on bad days. God loves us when we are being good. God loves us when we are being bad. And to prove it, He had it penned in His Book, just as the Apostle Paul put it: “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 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” (Rom 8: 38,39).

     This God is awesome! He asks for so little. And He gives us so much. All He wants is for us to love, honour, and obey Him. And in return He blesses us beyond measure. He gives us a fellowship family, faithful friends, nice homes, delicious food, cool clothing, forgiveness of sins, power to resist temptations, and eternal life and bliss one day. Moreover, He will also give us some of our wants, just because He likes making us smile. For it is written: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). Surely, He is the Lover of all lovers! And Lover that He is, He is always wooing us with His loving ways. For in spring and summer He sends us bouquets of wildflowers everywhere. And then in the fall He dazzles us by painting the trees with a palette of colours that would rival Michelangelo’s. And finally, in winter He puts icing on the cake by blanketing the earth with freshly fallen snow. Yes, our God has a heart huger than the heavens! And His heart is focused firmly on us!

     I guess what I am trying to say is that no matter what happens, no matter how low we sink sometimes, no matter if we feel God’s Presence or not, that God, who is love, loves us like crazy. Always has. Always will. He even wrote a love letter, the Bible, and addressed it to you and me! So, no matter how hectic our days may seem, if it’s not our habit already, let’s try to stop for few moments here and there and just bask in the radiance of that undying love!