Because He Loves Us
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:6-11
One of my goals for the year is to be more loving. Now many of you who have read my devotions might laugh at that saying, “Dude writes about love all the time, and he feels like he needs to be more loving?” I admit that I write about and focus on it, but that is not enough. God knows the times I’ve held back and those are not good things. My goal is to be more trusting of the love God has for me to be able to give it more freely to others. That applies to both the people I know and the ones I do not. It means spending more time with loved ones and being available to build new relationships. Most importantly, it means trusting what God has put in me and hesitate less because I’m worried that either something might be said wrong, or my intentions might be misread. I must trust God’s spirit will provide me whatever tools I need in those situations. Why? Because He loves me and would not steer me wrong.
We are given a new lease on life because God loves us so. There are many times the Gospel of Jesus is paraphrased in the New Testament. In this letter to the Romans, Paul gives a clear picture of what it means through today’s verses. Yes, we all understand the story, but do we honestly believe it? Is it embedded deep in our soul such that each time we are reminded of it we feel its warmth and strength? When I think of God asking me to come to Him, it is still an emotional experience because I believed for so long that I would be neither worthy nor deserving of God’s grace. That moment I chose Jesus became my foundation, my center. This is great to remember because even though many of us are well advanced in our understanding of God, there are many more who are not. This explains why many of our conversations about God to non-believers are ignored. We are reaching out to them from a place that is too distant to reach. The ‘turn to God and repent’ speech works primarily to lost Christians, but ‘show them who God is through action’ is universally accepted like a Visa card. Why? Because all people are filled with God’s Holy Spirit. This is important as Paul states in the previous verse:
For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:5b)
No matter how far someone may seem from God, they will always feel any act of love, and with it, the door to the kingdom may very well begin to open.
Trusting God is not an easy thing. We have past experiences and even some earthly common sense that might tell us to pull back. However, our goal as Christ followers is not restrict what God has given so freely to us. Thus, trusting God means going all in. It does not necessarily mean without hesitation, but we do so anyway knowing that God has our back. Let us both open our hearts and knowing that just as “our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God,” use the love God has shown us to bring others closer to Him and ourselves. Who is distant that you could reach out to with God’s love? How deep is your understanding of the depth of God’s love for you? My prayer is we start the new year being more active for God because He loves us. Amen.