Bible Reading: Jeremiah 31:1-6
Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jeremiah 31:3
SHAY STORMS INTO the house, slamming the door behind him. He mouths off to his parents, then grinds his little brother’s face into a bowl of ice cream. Grounded to his room for the rest of the day, Shay kicks the cat and beats his fist on the wall. Some very bad words just beg to pop out. As Shay cools down, it occurs to him that he’s been a jerk. And that Jesus has been with him all day long. And that Jesus is still with him now. So he wonders, Lord, why do you love me so much?
Ever blown it big and asked God that question?
Well, he loves you because he created you.
Have you ever watched a mother and father ooh and ah over their newborn baby? Some newborns are the ugliest creatures on earth. But not to their parents. They think their baby is the cutest thing ever born. Why? Because they helped create the little critter. And because God created you, he loves you even when you’re neither lovely nor lovable. He thinks you are the greatest. More than that, he loves you simply because he is a God of love. It’s his character to love. And nothing you do can make him stop loving you.
You might wonder how God can keep loving you after you’ve sinned. Suppose it’s the night after your school let out for vacation, and you get wild with your friends and wind up doing hundreds of dollars’ worth of damage to school property. While some of your classmates might dance all over your destruction, it wouldn’t thrill God. But would he quit loving you? No! He loves you-and the whole world-so much that he died for us to remove “our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).
So what can cause God to change his mind and stop loving you? Nothing! Listen to what God has to say about it. Romans 5:8 tells you how much God loved you before you were even a Christian: “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 8:38-39 tells you what might try to separate you from God’s love but can’t: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Get it in your head: God loves you! You can’t scare away his love.
REFLECT: Think again: What could you do that would separate you from God?
PRAY: Spend a few moments now telling God how great he is.
