Happy Mother's Day!
I'd like to take a moment to salute the mothers around the world. Moms: We appreciate you, we couldn't get along without you, and we're thankful for you! The gift you give just by being a mother is of greater value than you can comprehend.
You may have heard the song "Jesus Loves Me". If you have, you've probably thought, at least once in your life, "Why? Why does God love me?" Probably everyone asks this from time to time. We sing the song, but can't comprehend the reason behind it. Sometimes we try to come up with a good reason, which in our case means making one. You know, we attempt to make ourselves lovable to God. We spend extra time in prayer, attend church each week, maybe even write blogs about Jesus, and for a while we think we're doing pretty well. Then disaster strikes. We do something that we regret. Multiple times. And at times like this, we can only look up and say "Why and how, God, could you love a sinner like me? Look at this mess! I'll never be able to clean this up!"
But what we forget all the time is that we never did anything to deserve His love in the first place. He loved us to begin with. The apostle John smacked the nail on the head when he said "We love Him because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19 NKJV) Think about that. God loved us before we had a chance to love Him back. Romans 5 gives us a truly astonishing description of what God's love looks like. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 NKJV) A parent may be willing to die for a rebellious child, but few would die for someone rebellious in order to adopt him or her! Yet that's what God did. While we were still living filthy, unlovable, revolting, self-centered lives, God looked at us and said, "I love you, and I'll find a way for you to know it." That's the love that sent us Jesus. It's a good thing to go to church, and read the Bible, and try to act like Jesus and do the right thing. These are all good things and quite important to do. But listen to me closely when I tell you that not one of them will get God to love you more. Nor will your sins make Him love you less. You must repent of them, but they will not make Him love you less. My mom loves me when I do what's right and win my spiritual battles, and she loves me when I mess up for the umpteenth time. How much more should the God who died for us do the same! Romans 8:38-39 gives us a promise that everyone should sew onto their shirt sleeves. Paul writes and says, "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." He loves you because of Who He is, not because of who you are! And He gave it all before you could give at all. God loves you like a Father. And His love surpasses that of even the most dedicated mother. You need to know that God loved you enough to send His one and only Son, to die for you, paying the penalty for your sins, and rise again, 2000 years before you existed. (Click here to learn more)
This Mother's Day, we celebrate the mothers who give up so much for us. But just as we don't have to earn their love, so we don't have to earn the greater love of our Heavenly Father. We can't explain it, and don't always understand it, but we can rely upon it. He loves us, and that will never change!
I'd like to take a moment to salute the mothers around the world. Moms: We appreciate you, we couldn't get along without you, and we're thankful for you! The gift you give just by being a mother is of greater value than you can comprehend.
You may have heard the song "Jesus Loves Me". If you have, you've probably thought, at least once in your life, "Why? Why does God love me?" Probably everyone asks this from time to time. We sing the song, but can't comprehend the reason behind it. Sometimes we try to come up with a good reason, which in our case means making one. You know, we attempt to make ourselves lovable to God. We spend extra time in prayer, attend church each week, maybe even write blogs about Jesus, and for a while we think we're doing pretty well. Then disaster strikes. We do something that we regret. Multiple times. And at times like this, we can only look up and say "Why and how, God, could you love a sinner like me? Look at this mess! I'll never be able to clean this up!"
But what we forget all the time is that we never did anything to deserve His love in the first place. He loved us to begin with. The apostle John smacked the nail on the head when he said "We love Him because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19 NKJV) Think about that. God loved us before we had a chance to love Him back. Romans 5 gives us a truly astonishing description of what God's love looks like. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 NKJV) A parent may be willing to die for a rebellious child, but few would die for someone rebellious in order to adopt him or her! Yet that's what God did. While we were still living filthy, unlovable, revolting, self-centered lives, God looked at us and said, "I love you, and I'll find a way for you to know it." That's the love that sent us Jesus. It's a good thing to go to church, and read the Bible, and try to act like Jesus and do the right thing. These are all good things and quite important to do. But listen to me closely when I tell you that not one of them will get God to love you more. Nor will your sins make Him love you less. You must repent of them, but they will not make Him love you less. My mom loves me when I do what's right and win my spiritual battles, and she loves me when I mess up for the umpteenth time. How much more should the God who died for us do the same! Romans 8:38-39 gives us a promise that everyone should sew onto their shirt sleeves. Paul writes and says, "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." He loves you because of Who He is, not because of who you are! And He gave it all before you could give at all. God loves you like a Father. And His love surpasses that of even the most dedicated mother. You need to know that God loved you enough to send His one and only Son, to die for you, paying the penalty for your sins, and rise again, 2000 years before you existed. (Click here to learn more)
This Mother's Day, we celebrate the mothers who give up so much for us. But just as we don't have to earn their love, so we don't have to earn the greater love of our Heavenly Father. We can't explain it, and don't always understand it, but we can rely upon it. He loves us, and that will never change!
No comments:
Post a Comment