"God
made us because he loved us...
NOT God loved us because
he made"
The
first speaks of intentional and purposeful while the latter speaks of an
afterthought or forced action.
So much
of scripture supports the first rather than second statement. Don't know
about you but the difference makes a huge impact on my relationship with God,
with his son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.
My desire to love and
honor him in all I do and say, to worship him as the only true God grows deeper
each day as I understand he loved me BEFORE I was even born! Amazing!!
These
are truths we can build our lives on and believe when those around us might try
to convince us otherwise:
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my
body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so
wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched
me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the
dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was
recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had
passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be
numbered! (Psalms 139:13-17 NLT)
Even before he made the world, God loved us and
chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in
advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus
Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
(Ephesians 1:4, 5 NLT)
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him. (Psalms 24:1 NLT)
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 NLT)
We love each other because he loved us first. (1
John 4:19 NLT)
God showed how much he loved us by sending his
one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son
as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1 John 4:9, 10 NLT)
What shall we say about such wonderful things as
these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare
even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything
else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God
himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No
one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is
sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can
anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves
us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute,
or in danger, or threatened with death?
No, despite all these things, overwhelming
victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing
can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels
nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even
the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above
or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to
separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:31-35, 37-39 NLT)
I pray you find encouragement and hope in this truth today! Nothing you do or will do, you are or will become, you believe or don't believe is the basis for God's love for you. He loves you just because he loves you!
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