| What do you think whenever someone tells you that Jesus loves you?
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People want perfection. It's not necessarly a horrible thing to
want. It's just that too often, we want perfection in
ourselves. Perfection in ourselves is never, ever going to
happen by our own efforts. We can only be perfect when we are in union with the
Holy, Perfect One who created us. Our connection with God got a
bit messed up somewhere in
the mix. We can never earn our way back to him on our own or be
good enough or perfect in any sense of the word. But it's okay
because he made a way so that we could come back to him and someday be
in perfect union with him once again. And you know
something? It's not based on what we do, but on his grace.
It's based on our willingness to lay down our baggage and truly accept
the fact that Jesus took the punishment for our sins and because of him
we can be clean before the father.
Somehow, it got put into our minds that in order for anyone to
truly love us, we could not have any flaws. Our flaws become who
we are. And we think that those flaws are the only things people
see in us. I don't think people give other people enough credit.
Other people
don't necessarly focus on the things we dislike in ourselves. If
we're funny, creative, energetic, intelligent, and kind-hearted, but
maybe not the best listener or the best at carrying out our plans, we
think that people only see the fact that we don't excel in those areas
and just ignore the really great stuff about us. We're so much
harder on ourselves than other people are on us. I know I am, and
that's something that's been pointed out by some dear friends of mine
on more than one occassion. And it's something I'm working
on. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that, unless we like
to participate in mass genocides, other people usually notice the good
in us before they do the bad (unless the other people suck at
everything, including life) I think that's pretty cool. But
something even cooler than that is this....
We can be loved regardless of our faults! No matter how badly we
look down on ourselves, there is a perfect love out there that loves us
inspite of everything we hate in ourselves. (There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear... -John 4:18)
Where we have a true friendship, we don't have to worry about revealing
those things we don't like in ourselves. True friendship is
unconditional. There can be frustration, annoyance, but perfect
love sees past that. (Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends- John 15:13)
Greater love doesn't worry about itself. Greater love puts that
friendship before anything else. So, is there someone like that
in your life? That loves you so much, that no matter what you do,
they couldn't care about you any more or any less? I'll bet there
is. I bet you're just overlooking them. It can be hard to
see in humans. But there is one perfect love that has been shown
to us. Jesus died for us. He laid down his life for
us. Sometimes it doesn't make our hearts melt
like it should. But let it sink it and make your heart sink. (Greater love has no one than this...)
He didn't die for us because we deserved it. He didn't die for us
because our good qualities outweighed our bad. He died for us
because he loves us with a perfect love. (Perfect love drives out fear...)
We don't have to fear that we aren't good enough. We have trust
that he loves us even though we aren't good enough. He loves us because he is good and
perfect, not because we are.
Very rarely will anyone die for a
righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to
die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. -Romans 5:7-9
I don't think I need to add anything else to make my point. But if I do, you should let me know. |
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