He Loved Us First

“We love Him because He first loved us.” -- 1 John 4:19

Amazing, right? God chose to love us.

All three of my sons bless me tremendously in different ways. God knew I would need some extra love, affection, and encouragement to get me through my days, so He gave me Isaac, my encourager. Each day -- sometimes multiple times a day -- Isaac genuinely tells me how much he loves me, how “great” I am, or that I’m “the best Mom ever.” (He will make an excellent husband some day!)

One night, he said something pretty profound to me.  As I was saying goodnight to him, we had this little conversation:

Isaac: “I love you, Mom.”

Me: “I love you more!”

Isaac: “I love you the most!  I loved you first... Wait... I guess YOU actually loved ME first since you knew me before I knew you.”

WOW… talk about God dropping a truth bomb on me!

Before my children were even born, I knew them… I loved them so much, my heart could burst.  I can’t explain it, but if you’re a parent, I’m sure you understand what I mean. And when they were born, I cared for them and loved them before they could ever comprehend who I really was to them. They were helpless, especially as newborns.  All they could really do to communicate was to cry out for Mom or Dad. They did nothing to earn my love.

And now, because I simply loved (and love) my children, we have a relationship with each other because they have chosen to love me back.  Even if they had chosen not to love me back, it would not change my love for them.

What a great parallel to God’s precious love for us, His children.  He created you and me. He loved us and knew us before we were even born.  And when we choose to love Him back, we can have a relationship with Him. Meditate on these sweet verses about God’s intimate love for you:

Ephesians 1:4 says that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”

He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Do you realize how much the God of the Universe loves YOU?

Do you realize He gave His own Son, Jesus, on the cross just so that He could be with YOU for eternity?  

Do you realize how desperately He wants to have a relationship with YOU?

Every single person on this earth was created by God.  Every person, including YOU, was created thoughtfully and intentionally by our loving Father.  No matter what any person tells you, you are not an accident. You have purpose here on earth.

What grace and mercy our amazing God has.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Do you know Jesus as your Savior?  He loved you first, His precious child. Give your heart to Him.  Click here if you would like to have a relationship with Jesus and know that you’ll be in Heaven with Him for eternity.  

The Resting Faith: Get in the Word

 “There are three kinds of faith in Christ:

1. Struggling faith, like a man in deep water desperately swimming.

2. Clinging faith, like a man hanging to the side of a boat.

3. Resting faith, like a man safely within the boat (and able to reach out with a hand to help someone else get in).” 

If you recall, during this series of posts we’re exploring how we can come to a resting faith in God. In the last post we talked about the quote from D.L. Moody and how oftentimes the first step to being in a resting faith is simply asking God for stronger faith.

This week, I want to visit yet another very simple step to being in a resting faith:

Spending time in the Word of God!

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Romans 10:17

Faith comes from hearing the word of God! What better way to get the Word of God than simply spending time in the Word? Sure, we learn about God when we go to church, but what are you going to do the rest of the week? Really, stop and think about it. What kind of relationship would you have with your best friend if you only thought about them, spent time with them, or talked with them for an hour and a half, one day a week?! 

I can tell you with certainty that in times when I’ve really been struggling with my faith, I have found that I really need to re-evaluate my time spent in God’s Word. Oftentimes I find that I’m lacking in this area. 

God’s Word holds wisdom, healing, strength, and love. It’s the story of how we relate to Him and what He has done for us.

Take just a second and think of the person you’re closest to... someone you love, respect, care for, and enjoy spending time with. How did that relationship develop? I’m confident in saying that the relationship you have was NOT instantaneous. Such a deep, personal, loving relationship takes time to cultivate, refine, and build. No doubt you had to spend time with that person, maybe even hundreds or thousands of hours. Yet now, your heart is built up by them, you trust them, you lean on them, and you genuinely care for them.

The same is true in our relationship with God!

The strength, encouragement, and love you will find by spending time in the Word will build over time. The more time you spend with God, the more you benefit from it. Ultimately, the greatest side effect to spending time in the Word is a strengthened faith. We simply need to spend time in the Word, absorbing what God has for us, and that time spent will help put us into a state of resting faith!

So you may be sitting there, saying

If I can offer one piece of advice, it would be, "Don’t go at this alone!" Ask a brother or sister in Christ to help you. I’ll admit, for years there were entire segments of scripture that I would avoid reading, simply because I didn’t understand it and thought it was for those “smarter” people who had theology degrees and all that stuff. But I’ll tell you, God has given us the ability to read and understand His Word. Sometimes we just need a little help with understanding the context and verbiage held within the pages. That’s where your brothers and sisters in Christ can help. 

We live in an age when we have so much information at our fingertips. I can’t imagine what Spurgeon or Matthew Henry would do if they had access to the level of information that we do. Grab that friend who you know walks closely with the Lord, and ask them to help you out. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll grow even closer to resting safely in the boat!

God bless! See you next time!