God Loves You...

I have been singing the song How He Loves Us (written by John Mark McMillan) since last week. It’s been constantly in my head and I’ve watched probably 20 different versions of it on YouTube- even a Spanish version! They even sang it in church on Sunday! I didn’t know why but today I understood.

This morning when I woke up for prayer, I was asking God’s forgiveness for making a stupid choice despite all of the opportunities for escape that He gave me. They say that hindsight is 20/20 and it’s true! You can always see what you should have done after the fact. I found myself really beating myself up. It was almost like I was condemning myself so God wouldn’t have to say anything. I was stuck in it for a long time. It took over my prayer and was taking away from where my focus should have been. Then the words of the song started playing in my head.

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves.

And I realized why God had put this song in my spirit. He knows that guilt and condemnation are some of Satan’s most powerful weapons. He knows the end from the beginning so He knew that I was going to be in this place on this day and He prepared me. He told me that He loved me. God loves me so much! And He loves you and your husband and your friend and your mama. He loves us all. Even after we ignore Him and live our lives the way we want to. Even after we get mad because we don’t have what we think we should have. Even when we feel like we are nothing. He loves us!

I started to think about people who commit suicide or contemplate it. We often hear them say or read in their letter that they felt that no one loved them. That what they had done was so bad or what had happened to them was too hard to come back from. Even some of us who know God, have thought, even if just for a minute, that it would be easier if you just weren’t here anymore. That’s a trick of Satan!  God wants you to know that He loves you! 

Romans 8:1 & 2 in The Message Bible says “With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.” God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus who took condemnation with him to the cross and freed us of it.

When all this was coming into my spirit this morning, I told God that I hoped I could remember all this for Thursday but He said now! Somebody needed to hear today that God loves them. When you feel like you can’t go on, focus on God’s love. It’s an everlasting, unconditional love. There is nothing that you can’t come back from with His love. He doesn’t remind you of what you did wrong. He picks you up, brushes you off and wraps you in His arms. You don’t have to fix yourself or your situation first. Let Him do it! Just go to Him and let Him love on you.

I pray now that God’s love would surround each person reading this blog. That it would heal your heart and uplift your spirits. I pray that the evil voice of Satan would be silenced by the sound of God’s word and that the chains of old feelings of depression would forever be broken by the power of God’s love.

Amen.