UP is about our relationship with God our Father. It’s developing daily rhythms of meditating on God’s love and His purposes through the lens of His word. This prioritizing of our relationship with God is necessary for all spiritual activities both within and outside of the church.
UP is intentional, unhurried times of being with God which yield fullness of Joy and empower us to live the abundant, loving life Christ demonstrated for us to follow.
Grasping the magnitude of God’s amazing love for us is not just to be information, but it’s to become a growing realization. May the eyes of our hearts be enlightened.[1]
We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19 NASB)
For those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, the following is true.
God’s Love for Us is Everlasting
The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jeremiah 31:3 NASB)
How do we get our head and heart around everlasting love? “Ahabah,” the Hebrew word for everlasting love, describes a love which is beyond anything physical or any aspect of our soul (mind, will or emotions). God’s eternal love for us is unconditional and can’t be altered. It outshines every war, every illness, every natural disaster. No choice, thought or feeling can change the quality of God’s love for us.
Let this sink in a moment.
As believers, we’ve been chosen to be loved by God since before the world began. [2]
Story: There are exceptions and vast limitations to any earthly correlation to the things of God, but my mother gave me the most tangible example of His everlasting love. No matter how I disappointed her throughout my life, I never doubted her unconditional love for me. Often, when we’d part, she’d say, “Robby, don’t you ever forget how much I love you!”
She passed away in 2011, but her love remains constant within me ever day.
“Mom, I won’t ever forget. I love you too.”
P.S. Mom came into a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus seven months before she died. I smile within at the thought of seeing and hugging her again.
God’s Love Rescued Us
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:8-10 NASB)
We were apart from God, facing eternal darkness with no ability to change the situation. In our helpless state, while we were still hostile toward Him, God choose to rescue us. And He did it by sending His Son to die in our stead.
Please don’t allow the familiarity of this great news to cheapen the impact!
We were hostile and helpless, but God, out of His unparalleled love, gave His Son to save us.
And, not only did He save us from God’s wrath by His death, much more will He now preserve and heal us by His indwelling life.
Story: Growing up in a social Christian environment, I had a twisted view of what it means to believe in Jesus and go to heaven. I heard the wrath and hell part, which scared me to death, but I knew nothing of grace. My assumption was that since I believed in Jesus and was a pretty good person, I’d go to heaven.
But my belief was only a belief in the fact that Jesus is Lord. True belief, as spoken by Jesus in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life,” is more than factual. Belief in this context means, trust in, commit to and rely upon.
My true belief in the finished work of Jesus Christ occurred one evening during my college years. In those moments, my trust in Christ’s work and His death for me freed me from God’s wrath. His life in me, as I continue to trust Him, is conforming me into His image. [3]
Jesus Loves Us as Much as God Loves Him
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.”[4] Jesus
As much as God loves Jesus, He loves us. How can this really be? It seems unimaginable. Yet, Jesus said it. It is true!
Don’t rush past this. Remain in the truth of Jesus’ abiding love.
Story: If you’ve seen the movie Twister, the last scene is powerful. A raging tornado blows a building completely away. But, the main characters are saved because they are strapped to a pipe secured underground. God’s love is like that. He’s got us.
But, we can’t assume upon the love and grace of Christ. [5] Though our actions can’t change God’s love for us, established before the world began, we can choose to disobey. As believers, the strap of His love holds, but Jesus desires us to walk in the fellowship of His love and joy. This is done by relying on Him and walking in obedience.
Conclusion
As believers in Christ’s finished work for us on the cross, gazing upon and beginning to grasp the magnitude of God’s love for us is a first step in prioritizing and nurture our relationship with Him.
God’s love has an eternal quality which keeps it from being affected by anything of this world, seen or unseen.
Even when we were against God, His love for us moved Him to send His own Son to die in our place, rescuing us and making us whole.
As much as God the Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves us and we’re called to walk in the fellowship of His love.
Prayer
Lord, I’ll never fully comprehend the extent of Your love for me. It’s beyond my ability to comprehend. However, because You describe it in Your word, I believe it and want to walk in it. Though Your love doesn’t fit in my head, please make it real in my heart that it might shape every moment of my life. Amen.
Personal Study
Highlight Zephaniah 3:16-20
Explain it in your own words
Apply it to your life
Respond to God in prayer
[1] Ephesians 1:18
[2] Ephesians 1:4-5
[3] Romans 8:29
[4] John 15:9
[5] Romans 6:1-2
.Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
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