Recently, I’ve felt like I keep being prompted to remember how much God loves me. Now that might seem like a stupid thing to say because the crux of my Christian faith is that God loved the world so much, that He gave his only son to die for me, so that anyone who believes in Him might have eternal life (John 3:16). And I believe that, I really do. I know God loves me…in my head. I suppose that sometimes what I struggle with is knowing it in my heart; with really feeling it.
I’ve had the blessing of being able to attend an Alpha course, as my missional community at church is currently leading and running one. Alpha is a course designed to teach people who are seeking more information about Christianity about God, Jesus and how they can be saved. This week at Alpha was week 4*: the topic was faith. Nicky Gumbel (founder of the Alpha course) talks about the famous ‘Light of the World’ painting by William Holman Hunt. The painting depicts Jesus, the son of God, standing at a door. What I had never really noticed before is that the door at which Jesus stands, has no handle. When questioned about this, the artist stated that the handle was on the inside of the door; the door could only be opened by the one inside, not by Jesus. Jesus stands at the door of each of our hearts, and he knocks. He waits patiently on the outside of the door, knowing he will never get in unless we open the door that only we have the power to. Jesus’ love for us is seen in the waiting; He has the power to break through that door and make us spend our lives with Him. But my God** does not abuse His power. My God gives us the freedom to make our own choice about whether to accept Him. My God waits patiently, lovingly outside that door and He is so excited about the prospect that we might one day let Him into our hearts and share our lives with Him.
What incredible love that is.
Another place where I have been reminded of God’s love for me is through my daily bible readings. Sounds fairly obvious I suppose. To help me with reading my Bible and to understand how God’s word relates to my life, I often use devotional reading plans provided on the Bible app on my phone. One I have been reading lately is called ‘Without Rival’ by Lisa Bevere. 1 John 4: 15-17 are the focus verses of one such devotional. Verse 16 says ‘We know how much God loves us and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love, live in God and God lives in them.’ Even on first read, this verse is awesome! If we love God then he lives in us! He doesn’t just stand near us- He adores us and wants to intimately be a part of our lives. I find that so exciting. And after reading this, I read Lisa’s reflection on the verses. She reiterates how intimately and intricately God knows each of us because He made each of us. She then goes onto say that God does not love us all equally. How can this be? Surely that juxtaposes what I’ve been saying this entire blog about how much God loves us?! I’m taught that I was sinner and sin is equal in the eyes of God but now I’m saved and God loves all of us and ‘There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ (Galatians 3:28). How can this woman possibly make such an outrageous statement? The answer lies in her next statement. She goes onto say that God loves us each uniquely. He knows us all so completely and we are each so different, that God’s love has to be unique. His love for any two of us cannot be compared; it cannot be called equal because His love is so vast and indecipherable, and it affects us each differently. Lisa’s words really resonated within me.
What incredible love that is.
Finally, there’s a song that’s been going around my head a lot lately. It’s a song by a band called Switchfoot. The band are all christians and they write songs about God, however they don’t identify as a ‘worship’ band and they’re quite mainstream so they have a number of fans who aren’t Christian. In fact, they probably have a number of fans who don’t know that their songs are about God, because their songs tend to be love songs that could be construed as human love. This song is called ‘I won’t let you go.’ It’s written as a love song from God to us and it feels as though you’re being spoken to directly. The chorus says ‘If you could only let your guard down, you could learn to trust me somehow, I swear I won’t let you go’. These words are words that might crop up in a romantic relationship – one partner has been hurt in the past and puts their walls up, they refuse to give too much information about themselves away for fear of rejection or hurt that would replicate a previous hurt. And the other partner might be begging them ‘please just trust me, I won’t hurt you, let your guard down with me.’ I’ve been there, on both ends of that conversation actually. But to be human is to err. There’s no guarantee that another human won’t let you down. But God? That’s a whole other ball game. God is perfection and He will keep that promise. If you can let down your walls; if you can be open enough to let God into your heart. Well, He will change your life forever and He will never ever let you down and He will not even think of letting you out of is loving arms.
What incredible love that is.
*I started writing this post a couple of days after week 4. I’m actually posting it a couple of days after week 5.
**For those reading who might not be as comfortable with Christian terminology, because I believe in the trinity God – that is: God the father; God the son Jesus; God the Holy Spirit – I may refer to them interchangeably. Jesus is a part of God and therefore if Jesus loves me immeasurably, God does also.
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