I love my birthday! Sadly this only comes around once a year. I enjoy receiving gifts and experiencing the specialness of the day, the feeling of being loved and appreciated – it’s really amazing! I think we all can relate in some way or another. It’s true that not everyone enjoys being fussed over, but we all do enjoy receiving gifts. Perhaps it’s receiving the perfect gift that you really wanted, or just simply the absolute effort that was put into the purchasing of it, the wrapping, or the making of it – if it were a hand-crafted gift. Appreciation goes a long way! I have also on occasion realized that there are times when I feel like I really don’t deserve the gift. Irrespective though, it’s been given to me freely without any hidden agenda – simply mine for the taking!
I find a similar scenario with God. He loves me unconditionally, constantly and without restraint. Sometimes I don’t deserve His love, but He never stops loving me! Do you fully understand what I’ve just said? God loves you! Without reason, without holding back, He is always ready to shower you with love. Now, to fully understand and comprehend this love would be next to impossible. But, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4-7 puts it so beautifully:
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
An exercise I enjoy doing on occasion is replacing the word ‘love’ with my name – it’s an excellent way to assess where you’re at in terms of the ‘love factor’.
The Bible says God is love. That means, just like a good parent who disciplines their child, leads and guides them through soft and strong words on occasion; so too God leads and guides us. Remember, we should never confuse our human understanding of the word love with God’s love – they are vastly different. Hollywood and the media paint a very scary image of love, I simply want no part of that kinda love.
God’s love corrects us, it causes us to become better people, and it completes us and makes us all warm and fuzzy inside! God’s love consists of forgiveness, understanding and undeserved grace.
The truth is we don’t deserve God’s love, no one does! But just like that birthday gift, He gives it freely, whether you deserve it or not – it’s yours!
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