You failed again. You blew it. You sinned. You didn't want to sin - but you did. The Enemy got the upper hand. And now you feel like a failure. Because you know you are. You wonder if God can forgive you again. You feel like surely He doesn't even like you anymore. I mean, you mess up so often! How could a just and holy God still want to be with you? to be your friend?
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus..." Romans 3:23-24
Let me tell you something. I love my children. Fiercely. Even when they are disobedient. Even when they have bad attitudes or act wrongly. I would die for them. More than that; I would endure starvation, deprivation, and torture, if it meant sparing my precious little ones. I would offer myself as a sacrifice - all because of my human, instinctual, yet steely-strong love for my children. And I am quite certain you, as a parent, would do the same.
Now think about God. Not a scary old man, not a lightening-hurling ogre, but God your Father. The same God who created the world with a word - He loves you.
He loves you. He loves you. Just like a mother loves her child with every fiber of her being - so God loves you. He would allow Himself to be tortured and killed, if it meant you, His child, could be saved!
He did that, you know. He sent His Son, Jesus, to be beaten, wrongly accused, spit on, tortured beyond imagination, and finally killed, to spare you from Death.
Only - you have a choice. You will still die if you ignore His offer of Life. But you can be saved! Your torturers and accusers have been paid. They have collected the Ransom already. You are free to go. But only if you believe.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16
And if you are already saved, you can rest in the knowledge that God loves you just as fiercely and protectively as any mother loves her child. God loves you just like that! Try to understand it. Try to wrap your mind around the fact that God your Father loves you in the same way you love your child. I would tell you He loves you more - because He does - but that is more than I can wrap my mind around, quite frankly. To think that my Father loves me as much as I love my child, is almost beyond my small understanding. I have been mulling it over lately. I urge you to do the same. Think how secure we will become, once we grasp this truth.
"...and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:19
"...How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling." Matthew 23:37b
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."Romans 5:8
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