Think of the dearest person in your life: perhaps a parent, a friend, a spouse, a child. How many years have you known them? 5 years? 10? 20? 30? More? Now try to amplify those feelings of love and affection from God's perspective. He made you. He has planned and known you from eternity past and on to eternity future. You are never off His mind. Not only you, but billions of other people - past, present and future. My heart feels like it's going to burst just trying to grasp something of how wide, deep, long and high is the loving heart of God. Yet it is said: "the bigger they are, the harder the fall" - oh how the sin and rejection of the human race against God must grieve and disappoint His heart!
On Sunday, we listened as Isaiah sang a love song about God's unrequited love for His people. We listened as God sighed "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?" (5:4) and as God cried six times: "woe [alas]" because of their sin. When Jesus walked on the earth, He was full of love for broken people - and yet at every turn He met rejection, hatred and betrayal - climaxing in the ultimate rejection of the Cross. He endured the rejection of the human race and enduring the divine rejection (the judgement of exile and death) that the sins of Israel and the nations deserved. He chose this path, that no other could bear or dare walk, because He loved us. Today, in Christ, you can stand safe, secure, assured of God's "never-stopping, never-giving up, un-breaking, always and forever love" (Sally Lloyd Jones). Warm your heart and affections on these beautiful scriptures:
On Sunday, we listened as Isaiah sang a love song about God's unrequited love for His people. We listened as God sighed "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?" (5:4) and as God cried six times: "woe [alas]" because of their sin. When Jesus walked on the earth, He was full of love for broken people - and yet at every turn He met rejection, hatred and betrayal - climaxing in the ultimate rejection of the Cross. He endured the rejection of the human race and enduring the divine rejection (the judgement of exile and death) that the sins of Israel and the nations deserved. He chose this path, that no other could bear or dare walk, because He loved us. Today, in Christ, you can stand safe, secure, assured of God's "never-stopping, never-giving up, un-breaking, always and forever love" (Sally Lloyd Jones). Warm your heart and affections on these beautiful scriptures:
- "For God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
- "Behold, what manner of love is this, that we should be called the children of God - and so we are" (1 John 3:1-2).
- "For God so loved the world that He gave us His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
- "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
- "[I pray you] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19).
Praise God Today: "Your Love Never Fails, It Never Gives Up, it Never Runs Out On Me"
Pray Today:
- Give thanks for God's love that reaches down to embrace you just as you are, and transforms you, lifting you up to be the person God most wants you to be.
- Pray for opportunities to channel God's love to your neighbours in word and action: "Let your light shine before men, so that they see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven" (Matthew 5)
- Pray for Alistar and Karen Frater, as he prepares to undergo treatment for cancer. Specifically, you can pray that the side-effects of treatment will not hamper his ability to enjoy playing his favourite instrument: the trombone!
