Where to find love?
I hadn’t thought about it before. Not really.
Our associate pastor, Dr, David Hayes, preached on Romans 8 this past week. It was a powerful message about how nothing can separate us from the love of God and how we are MORE than conquerors.
I was reading the passage myself and saw something that caught my eye. I know this truth but somehow this caught me off guard in a strange revelation kind of way. Like a bonus piece of chocolate, only better. I know I have read this verse before; but this day I read it differently.
It reads (emphasis mine):
“37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39
The love of God is found in Christ Jesus.
Where is the love of God? In Christ Jesus.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Where to find love?
In the simplest things He created; the morning, the night,
the birds of the air and the fish of the sea,
In the colors; All the colors.
In the crazy, the messy, and the frustrated. In the unexpected. In the small. In this moment.
And how do we return God’s love? With Thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
Psalm 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.
His love endures forever…
Ann Voskamp writes, “Untie that lie that strangles you by circling your life with Truth: Give Thanks to The Lord, His Love Endures – endures cancer, teenagers, laundry, infertility, sleepless nights, debt, despair, betrayal, broken dreams, toddler tantrums, a thousand pressures — His love Endures Forever. So say it again, like a refrain on repeat.”
His loves endures forever. Repeat.
Um…that’s good!