From the beginning of time, from the moment you existed in your mother's womb, on every day since you were born, God has loved you with unfailing love!
Think about that. No one has loved you that long or that consistently.
God wants His love to overwhelm us. He wants His love to protect us from any love that would hurt or betray us. He wants His love to be our standard because no other love can do all we need better than God. So . . .
Who would we be if we really believed in God’s unfailing love?
Who would we be if we accepted what God believes about us?
If we really believed in God’s unfailing love, we would live with more security and less fear. We would live with more of our original, God-given identity and stop chasing someone else’s idea of who we should be.
Lent is a time to review the loves in our life that pull us down, frustrate or hurt us. Sometimes they are people; sometimes they are activities or habits. We can’t always remove them; but we can, with God’s love, reassign their place in our lives. We can ask God to give us what we need so that our wants do not take us on frustrating or self-destructive detours. We can receive UN-failing love so that we are empowered to receive and give love from a healed place and not a wounded one.
It really is simple. Just let God love you.
Let. God. Love. You! You--the needy, wanting-to-do-better you, You are not just another prayer request. You are the apple of His eye, His treasure, His reason for getting involved in the mess of this world. Live knowing that the unfailing love of God is your armor, your home, and the lap of a doting father for his prized child.
This is the only way to come to the cross--loved fully and unfailingly. Loved beyond your expectations. Loved in spite of your failures. Loved so completely that the only way to respond is to return that love.
The world is full of broken people who are starved for love. As believers in Christ, we are not one of them.
Live loved because of creation, the cross, and the ongoing empowerment of a love that cannot be denied, only accepted.
Live unfailingly loved so that you will always have enough love for those who do not.
