Chosen–How God Loves Us
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love“… You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you (John 15:9,16 NIV).
Do you understand the weight of this verse? God chose you; He keeps choosing you no matter what you say or do. You can’t stop His incredible love. In fact, the more you try to resist or deny God’s love, the more He will pursue your heart.
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably wondered, “how do I feel God’s love? How do I know it exists?”
You won’t ever feel the true weight of God’s love by doing all of the right things in life, or by trying to live up to some perfect religious standards. The only way we can truly understand how much the Savior adores us is to realize how awful our sin is and how far we have fallen.
And you know what? We don’t have to try to impress God with our religiosity or good works in order to show we love Him. The only way to truly love God is to surrender our lives to His love, and to let Him have His way in our lives.
The effects of the fall of man are still obvious today. But through it all, God decided to choose us. He chose you, even in those moments when you wouldn’t have chosen yourself. There is nothing you can do to stop the relentless love of God, so you might as well embrace it. You might as well choose to believe in it.
Happy Monday and thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment and share 🙂
3 Comments
pastordavidrn
Emily, if you have never read the poem, “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson, you have a treat in store. It’s an awesome, articulate work about God’s pursuit of us, when we are fleeing Him. I tried to capture the same concept of God coming after us in my own poem, much shorter than Thompson’s…
CAUGHT BY LOVE
Love of God, You awesome Seeker,
Searching for our straying heart,
Gaining speed as we grow weaker,
Closing in to end the chase.
Love of God, You ardent Hunter,
Waiting for our will’s head start;
Watching, till our path grows bleaker,
Then begins Your steady race.
“Let me go!” screams out the quarry,
“Let go; let Me!” the Hunter calls.
So persists God’s passion-story;
Stubborn Love has set the pace.
“Let me go, You ardent Hunter!”
But we fail to see the walls
Limiting our flight from glory,
As we run from Love’s embrace.
Slamming into such protection,
Stopped and spared from suicide,
We are trapped by God’s affection,
Forced to hear Love face to Face.
“Let go; let Me!” repeats the Hunter,
“Let Me heal the wounds you hide:
First, your sins; then hurts . . . rejection . . . .
Let Me bathe them in My grace.”
Caught by Love’s intent pursuing,
Captured for eternal bliss,
Fools we were to flee the wooing
Our retreat could not erase.
Let go; let God, the loving Hunter
Catch your hand and plant His kiss.
Our escape was our undoing;
His arrest, our resting-place.
— David L. Hatton, 8/15/1998
[from Poems Between Death and Life (c) 1999, 2014]
(link to printable PDF file of this poem:
http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/poem-caughtbylove.pdf)
beckielindsey
Thanks for reminding us that we are chosen because we are loved. It’s too much to comprehend!
Fearfully Wonderfully Me
Yes! And it makes all the difference in how we live our lives 🙂