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Psalm 119:10-11 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not
wander from your commandments! I have stored up your
word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

How Much Does God Love Me?

Rom 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Rom 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I was reading this scripture last week and found it quite reassuring. I decided to break it down in my mind and then try to see exactly what it meant to me.

As I go through the struggles of my life I find it troublesome once in awhile that God seems so far from my reach. As the day goes on I begin to tell myself that He doesn't really care about my struggles or that maybe He is just too darn busy to care about what an insignificant person such as myself might be going through. Even better, He must be looking down at my circumstances and saying to me, "Well, there you go again, screwed up again didn't you!"

Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

Verses 38-39 of Romans 8 help me to realize just how difficult it would be for His love to ever be apart from me. There is absolutely nothing that can separate me from His love. It has always been there for me, is there for me now, and will continue to be there for me as long as eternity exists.

So what does that mean exactly? If His love for me is eternal and will never leave then that must say something about His character. The issue isn't about God, it is about me. How do I perceive the character of God and His love? That is the question I must ask myself. If God has assured me that nothing will ever separate His love from me then that must mean to me that there is something about God that allows Him to remain consistent in His dealings with man, and especially in my case, with me.

So I started with the beginning. "For I am convinced"... well, here is a problem right from the start. I am not always convinced, that is the problem. My emotions go up and then they go down. Sometimes they even go sideways... I guess the first step to understanding Gods love starts with me... I need to work on the "convinced" part. Not just when it feels right, but daily by diving into the Word and seeing His consistent nature and how He deals with me and others just like me.

Next, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,"... now that is a lot of things. God has assured me that my own death and life can't change Gods love for me. Principalities can not separate me from His love, so Satan, be gone! Now things today nor tomorrow can't change it so that gives me confidence that no matter how tomorrow goes, He will still love me just the same. Powers, height, depth, nor any other created thing... wow, that pretty much covers the full spectrum of things now doesn't it. Virtually speaking; nothing, nada, zippo!

"Nothing" will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Love of God. What an awesome thing. The creator of the heavens and the earth loves me and assures me that nothing can can separate His love from me.

Back to what I was saying earlier about His character. So what is so great about the Love of God anyway? Well, let me just start with the cross. Jesus. God loved me so much that He allowed His own blood to spill on the cross for my transgressions. He took my punishment for my sin. How amazing is that? I have many children of my own and if God came to me and asked me to give one of them up for the sins of all humanity I am sure He would probably have to pry one of them out of my hands. He allowed Jesus to go and Jesus allowed himself to go... the perfect model of free will. (that topic will come another day)

John 3:16 tells me that He loved me so much He gave His only son for me. And John 15:13 tells me that there is no greater love than to lay down your life. And in the book of Romans it tells us again in chapter 5 verse 8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

So God gave His son for me and I am completely in debt to Him for that. And if I look at 1Corinthians chapter 13 verses 4-8 I get just a glimpse of what Gods love looks like:

1Co 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
1Co 13:5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
1Co 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
1Co 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never fails

So back once again to the character of God. He loves me so much that He was willing to give His son. He also loves me like it shows in Corinthians. Wow, that means that He really does care about my struggles and the things I go through every day. Not just a little bit but to the point where He will never lead me astray and will always give me direction on where to turn next. He will be patient with me when I mess things up. He will not take into account a wrong suffered. He will believe in me and endure my hardships with me. He will bear my burdens and will rejoice with my victories. He will never fail me.

God loves me far more than I could ever imagine. When times are good or times are difficult His love for me never changes and will never depart from me. There is so much comfort in that.

weapher

19 comments:

Wise Girl said...

That was very helpful to me at this time in my life thank you God bless you.

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful article on God's love for us. Thankyou, for posting this. May Peace be with you!:)

Anonymous said...

I was extremely blessed by this. My face was covered in tears. THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!! GOD BLESS THE HECK OUT OF YOU. omg He has blessed you with a gift for writing, use it for HIS glory and may His presence and everlasting love be ever with you, God bless.

Keith C said...

Thank you for the comments and kind words. I hope and pray that the Lord blesses you and gives you strength.

He is worthy of our praise...

Blessings,
Keith

Anonymous said...

I've been going through some dark places. I know God loves me, but reading this article was really reassuring. Thank you.

Keith C said...

Anonymous... I understand going through dark places a time or two in my life. I pray for you and your situation. God loves you and will never leave you. If you ever need someone to talk with and still remain anonymous there is an awesome resource online called Groundwire. The coaches there are great people and will chat about anything you have on your heart to talk about. They will pray with you and give you resources if you need them as well.

I pray the Lord blesses you today.

Keith

The web address is www.groundwire.net

Anonymous said...

I understand and believe what is said about God's love. But I been feeling so far away from Him for many years. I love Him with all my heart and want to please him. I find myself missing the mark at times and really getting down on myself. I know He has provided His Holy Spirit to help us. Please keep me in your prayers.

Keith C said...

Anonymous,

You will be in my prayers. We all miss the mark from time to time and getting down on yourself is a great tool the Devil uses to keep you from coming back quickly into the Grace of God.

He loves you and will always bring you back when you turn toward Him.

Thanks for sharing your heart.

Blessings,
Keith

Diana said...

I think I can not know if god loves me or not, that's why I prefer being as much good as I can in order to be loved by him and also by people around me. I are judge by other during our life and by god at the end of this life.

Hurt but loved said...

Hey Keith. Reading this brought many thoughts to my mind and helped. Lately life has lost my interest. Days would pass where all I would see in the reflection was an empty shell undeserving of love or mercy. I felt like no one in the world cared about me, and my futile attempts for attention, any attention would fill the hole in my heart. I tried vehemently to fill that hole with drinking, drugs, people, sex, cutting. No one ever noticed however and I felt like no one ever would. I truely felt like no one cared to notice. I just wanted to feel true unconditional love. There is no such thing in this world however, except in the grace of Christ.
His grace which remains forever and unending. He loves us although we reject him and refuse him. I realized while I felt rejected and hurt, he felt the same way with me. I rejected him and disobeyed him and betrayed him countless times over. His love for me however is unending and an ocean of peace and mercy and grace. No matter what I do he will never leave or forsake me and no one Will ever separate his love for me, whether it be sexual abuse, physical abuse, rejection, how I look, how I act, talk, how much I feel like the loneliest person in the world -- or how many times I betray him. He will always love me. And knowing that...that someone loves me out there, loved me when I was still sinning and was unlovable...it gets me through the anguish. It makes me not feel unwanted.

Keith C said...

HBL... Thank you for commenting and sharing your heart. You obviously understand His grace and love. I pray you always feel loved by Him.

Blessings,
Keith

JESUS LOVES ME LIKE A HURRICANE said...

Hi my name is Andrew and I love God with all my heart mind body and soul I love talking to JESUS all day and everyday I sometimes feel like I burden him with all my thoughts but your right how can he ever be burdened if he loves us so much I have been rejected a lot by people but never by Jesus I feel closer to God than my own family and friends I have 3 journals that I write in and it feels awesome to be able to have a relationship with him God bless us all and I pray that he wraps us all in his infinite love

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this. I have gave my life to the Lord a few years back and have been struggling with some serious issue and I ask that you all keep me in your prayers while I try to get to know God.
Thanks,
StillStruggling.

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing your perspective on love. I am going through a different battle. I love a man who does not believe he deserves love. He is broken and in need of God in his life. He was a victim of emotional abuse and God has put it on my heart to share the example of His love. God never fails and people need to see that in others. Even if we may never end up together, I cannot leave him in his sorrow. I will be a representative of Christ love and push my own feelings aside because its not about me. It never was. I thank you for the reassurance that my God also pursues me everyday as I pursue Him. He will not leave me and He will use me as His vessel to help this very lovely man's soul. God bless you for supporting a sister in Christ.

Keith C said...

Unknown... I too have a past of trauma and abuse . The Lord has done a work of healing through His Spirit in my live and that came to me through the most amazing way. My wife... You are in our prayers. I encourage you to love him as you understand more of how God loves you. It can be quite challenging but God is faithful to give you the portion you need to keep going. When you get tired remember to focus on Jesus for your strength.

I am sure you are far more of a blessing to him than he will ever be able to express...

Blessings,
Keith

Anonymous said...

Very true and i think about this daily (:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting this. It's blessed me so much during my struggles. God Bless!

Keith C said...

Lexi,

May you find His peace during this time. Praying for you...

mdean400@gmail.com said...

Diana, I know that you posted this a few years ago, but hopefully you see this reply anyway. We can know that God loves us. Here is why: Jesus died on the cross for us. At any point during His crucifixion, Jesus could have gotten down off of the cross, because He is God and He is infinitely powerful. However, He CHOSE to stay there for you and me. He CHOSE to experience more pain than anyone else will ever experience, even more pain than anyone will ever experience in hell. We can know that God loves us because He chose to do this for us.
We do not deserve Jesus dying for us, and we do not deserve His love for us. We could never be good enough to deserve these things. That is why we need Jesus. We need Him because we are not good. Only God (God is the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) is good. Each person will be judged by God, but whether the person goes to heaven or to hell is not based on whether or not they are good, because no one except for God is good. Whether a person goes to heaven or to hell is based on whether or not they have put their trust in Jesus. When a person puts their trust in Jesus, Jesus gives them His righteousness. When God judges a person who has put their trust in Jesus, He sees Jesus’s righteousness instead of the person’s sins. God brings the person who has trusted in Jesus to heaven with Him because of Jesus’s righteousness. When God judges a person who has not trusted in Jesus, God sees that the person has sinned and He sends them to hell because they have sinned. However, the person who has trusted in Jesus has also sinned. Everyone except for God has sinned. The only reason that the person who has trusted in Jesus doesn’t go to hell is because Jesus has given them His righteousness.
It’s not about how good we are, it’s only about whether or not we have trusted in Jesus. The truth is that we all deserve to go to hell because we have all sinned. I hope that if you haven’t put your trust in Jesus already, that you do so now. If you put your trust in Jesus, He will give you his righteousness, and when God judges you, He will see Jesus’s righteousness instead of your sins, and He will bring you to heaven for eternity, where you will be forever content, instead of sending you to hell for eternity, where you will be forever tortured. God already paid the price for our sins, just put your trust in Jesus, and He will save you.
This is a pretty confusing post. If you would like to talk to me about it, or if there is something I can do to help you, or if you just want someone to talk to, reply to this or post another comment on this page, or send me an email at mdean400@gmail.com.