"The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." - Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)
When God said He loves us with an everlasting love, He sincerely meant that, beloved.
Most of the times, we are faced with trials that comes in different kinds of packages. In the midst of those struggles, often times, we forget of His heart for us. However, God's love doesn't depend on our circumstances, nor does it limit the unconditional love He lavishes on us. No matter how bad our circumstances are, His love remains.
The very reason why we're alive and healthy, and why we're still breathing, is a clear evidence of His heart for us. He loves us so much that He never judges us with our mistakes, with our deepest darkest secrets, with our failure to meet His standards. He loves us so much that He is willing to pick us up in our failures, and that He is more than willing to restore us to our real blessed state. Regardless of who you are, where you came from, what you did in the past or even awhile ago, the love of God is for you.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
And so God is. God is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, not easily angered, KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS, DOES NOT DELIGH IN EVIL, PROTECTS, TRUSTS, HOPES, PERSEVERES, NEVER FAILS.
Beloved, do you know how much your worth is? Look back at the cross, where Christ died for you. When he said, "It is finished!" he took everything with him. Now that we are in Christ, he becomes our righteousness.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Christ's death wasn't just a show, it wasn't just for people to see God's glory, it was a sincere sacrifice of God's great love for us. It wasn't a joke, when Christ laid his life for us to save us all from ourselves. It is when Christ died that we found our true worth, it is on the cross where God shows, "Beloved, this is your true worth."
A lot of things will get us discouraged, and these discouragements lead to another pile of other kinds of discouragements... a bitter cycle that never ends - unless we put our hands up in the air, and say, "I'm sick of this cycle, it's eating me up, it's killing me, Jesus, save me!" Beloved, Christ took your place. You don't have to struggle anymore because all these things was finished at the cross for you. Struggling implies that Christ's death was just some freak show, but no, it wasn't.
It defeated history, it defeated death, it defeated all the names: depression, anguish, hatred, bitterness, grief, loss, sorrow, loneliness, vulnerability, isolation, self-pity, emptiness, anxiety, lust, and all other kinds of things that are of this world that tries to ruin our blessed state.
What you can never do for yourself, Christ already did for you.
"And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins." - Hebrews 8:12
Beloved, Christ's death was a beautiful exchange. These problems we face today, were made especially for us, so we would be changed all the more, inside and out, so that we would have stories to tell, so that we would see more of God in our lives, so that we would know more of His different angles.
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes." - Revelation 21:4
Beloved, you are loved dearly, when no one else would accept you, God is for you. If you are having a difficult time right now, hold on, pain ends. He will wipe those tears for you one day. And guess what? God sees your tears, He feels your heart. And as you cry, He cries with you. Don't give up, beloved.
God loves you with a love that you can rely on, in every kinds of situation. Christ rescued us so we can experience God's love.
I pray, beloved, that God would reveal to you this kind of love and as you allow Him to, in Christ you are assured, you will never be the same again.
Receive God's love as He lavishes it on you.
