Unlimited Love

I adored me some Miguel. I fell in love with him on Feb 14. I was in Starbucks, they were offering a free download of his song "Adorn", I took it. All of my non-secular music listening friends, you can skip this post. I don't want to offend. But have patience for a minute, and see if you like where I am going with this first.

Anyway, I played that song out, over and over and over again. I played it in my car, I had to hear it before I went for my workout. I played it while I was writing. I was that obsessed with it. I thought it was all so romantic, I wanted someone to adorn me with love too.

On Feb 16, I woke up with fragment of a song running through my head: “Your love for me is forever, your love for me is forever.” It was the bridge from Fred Hammond's song "No Greater Love." I started thinking about God's love. Unconditional. Irrevocable. Merciful. Forgiving. Eternal. He said so Himself through Paul in Romans 8:35-39:

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? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” 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.

What love, what amazing love.

Sometimes I forget how much God loves me because I am stuck thinking about all the prayers that I want answered right now. I wonder if those prayers are running into a steel door up there in heaven because it feels like the more I pray, the more nothing is happening. Meanwhile, it seems as if everyone else in the world are getting their prayers answered in an instant, which frankly is just pure envy on my part.

As I sit in the waiting room, watching the time pass by without the physical manifestation of my desires, the little voices of doubt tick out the hour: He doesn't care. He doesn't hear. He doesn't see. He has forgotten you. Just do you.

Of course those words are straight lies. After all God said in Isaiah, in response to a similar statement made by the Israelites:

Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”“Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.” Isaiah 49:14-16 NLT

The most amazing thing about this God-love is that it is offered freely to anyone who wishes to have a part of it, there is no prequalification and no need for pre approval.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:6-8 NLT

Most important of all, once we get it, we don't have to do anything to keep it.

I think this continues to be my stumbling block, wanting to earn God's approval and God's blessings instead of resting in His grace. With God's help though, I know I will learn how to trust in His love. Meanwhile, I thank God for the best adornment of all. 

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10