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Writer's pictureCathy Garland

Gracefull Confidence

God will never love you more than He loves you right now.


Nothing you can do or not do, be or not be, refrain from or take on, obey or disobey, accomplish or destroy can influence the great love of our God for you, specifically.


His love is perfect—complete—just as He is. It does not grow or change over time, like a parent's love for a child. He loves because He IS love (His essence is love), so it does not depend on your actions. This also means that He will never love one person more or less than another, yet we can feel like John the Beloved and call ourselves "the Beloved" because God loves us specially. His love is THAT lavish: His thoughts toward just one of us is greater than all the sands of the oceans and deserts.


And, because He is immutable (unchanging), His love cannot grow—it is already complete. Because He is present in the past, now, and future all at the same time, He loves you in your past, the present, and the future...right now.


Lastly, and far more important than I can quickly give to it, we can trust in His love. When it look absent or confusing or tempered with justice (God is also just), we can still trust in it. His love is complete in a way that our modern sensibilities aren't trained to understand. The concept of love has been hijacked for so long we don't know what it actually means. I encourage you to take it back by reading the narrative of love in the Bible and the purpose of all He does: I will be their God, they will be my people, and I will dwell in their midst.


The mind-bending, freedom-giving doctrine of God's love is important to know not in a God-loves-the-whole-world way but in a God-would-have-died-just-for-you way.


But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.


- Isaiah 43:1-2


In this Christmas season, let us follow the thread of God's love from the heartbreaking call of God to Adam "Where are you?" to the nations of Israel as they call out for rescue over and over again to the Messianic prophecies that give them hope (in Isaiah and Malachi) to a manger in Bethlehem to a risen savior who calls us to take up our cross and follow Him.


Grace makes room for the love of God to be shed abroad in our hearts.

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