In the past week, three people close to me have had their hearts shattered due to broken relationships. Feeling helpless, I asked the Lord in prayer what to say to them that would help them. He said to me, "Tell them that I love them." Really? It seemed so trite to me to say "God loves you" to my friend whose wife of 22 years left him, or to my daughter whose first true love broke up with her, or to my dear friend whose boyfriend just isn't ready for a serious relationship right now. It's one of those overused Christian phrases that quite frankly ticks me off because it's dismissive and condescending. Or so I thought...
The very next morning, I received a daily devotional from Daily Hope with Rick Warren entitled "Children Need to Know that God Loves Them." Rick so beautifully laid out a very convincing argument for parents to teach their children that God created them and He delights in his creation. He designed us for a purpose and desires a relationship with us. He alone the one true love we can count on who will never let us down.
After reading this devotional, I spent some more time in prayer and He revealed to me the following biblical truths about his love that I believe He wants all of his children to know.
- You were not an accident. You exist because of God's will for your life, created in His image. (Genesis 1:27, Revelation 4:11)
- God is perfect and his love is unchanging. (1 John 4:12; Micah 7:18)
- You were fashioned for a purpose which God prepared in advance for you to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
- God knows your every thought and every move. He is with you every step of the way. (Job 31:4, Psalm 44:21)
- You can lose people, possessions, jobs, etc. but nothing you can do could ever separate you from God's love. (Romans 8:39)
- God wants a deep and intimate relationship with you. He stands at the door and waits for you to let him into your heart and life. (Revelation 3:20)
When I started to consider all of these truths, it occurred to me that truly knowing God loves us gives us the power and strength to overcome any circumstance, inspires hope, and brings healing and comfort, especially when human love fails us. We cannot even begin to understand the love that God has for us in our human existence because this kind of love simply doesn't exist in the flesh. There is NOBODY in our life who can love us like the Father loves us - completely unconditionally and sacrificially, with a love that is unchanging and continues to pursue us whether we return it or not. In fact, the entire bible story is the story of God's unrequited love of his people. He continues to love and pursue us, yet we continue to wander, disobey, worship false idols, and sin.
Psalm 136 takes it even further. Every other line states "His steadfast love endures forever," for a total of 26 times. I don't know about you but if something is repeated 26 times, it's probably pretty important and worth remembering. I looked up the word "steadfast" and it is defined by Dictionary.com as: firm in purpose, unwavering, or firmly established. The word "endures" is defined as: to sustain without impairment or yielding, to bear without resistance, or to bear with patience. So, if we substitute these definitions, the repeating verse in Psalm 136 says, "His firm, unwavering, firmly established love sustains without yielding, bearing with patience, forever." This gives the phrase "God loves you" a little bit more meaning, wouldn't you agree? This is the kind of love we all long for, and is the kind of love that God gives to us freely, no strings attached. He simply asks us to love and accept his son, who was given to us as a gift of his grace and mercy. Seems simple enough, but we make it so complicated. We doubt His love because we feel unworthy...and we are. But He loves us anyway. We reject His love, and yet He continues to pour out His love unendingly. We abuse His love and we sin, and He forgives us. Sounds a lot like the broken hearts that I was telling you about at the beginning of this blog, doesn't it? But in this story, God is the one with the broken heart. The amazing thing is that in loving him back, we repair His broken heart, and our own.
God calls us, each and all, to show & tell of His steadfast love so that it's written on each child's heart. Who knows when we'll need that blessed reassurance of His unconditional love? When my husband said to me, "Who could love you with a face like that?", my first thought (after recovering from the verbal slap in the face) was this: "JESUS LOVES ME!". Let's do our best to let every child, young or old, write that same message on their heart.
Posted by: Ann | May 22, 2011 at 07:05 AM
Having suffered heartbreaks of various shapes and sizes over the years, I can only say, "THANKS"...God is truly the healer and the mender when nothing else will do the job!
Posted by: Diane Markins | June 02, 2011 at 01:52 PM