Day 11 -Progress

I woke up about 4am today with one line of a song running through my mind. Its not a song that has ever been written to my knowledge and I am not a song writer [to my knowledge]. This is what it was:

Jesus’s love is not against us, Jesus’s love is not against us.

And I mean over and over this line kept popping into my head. It was almost obnoxious.

But then, I got really excited thinking about these words. And let me share with you why in today’s 3 Q’s.

Day 11

“This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.” -1 John 4:9-10

Question 1 –What does this verse say?

I love this verse. [I know, I’m not supposed to say that yet but…I just can’t keep it in.]

Understanding the love that God has for us can be overwhelming at times. Its hard to believe that there would be a God that would love me in all of my yuck and that I could never do anything to make Him love me more or less.

Question 2 –What does this verse mean?

Have you ever thought about the damage that our sins do to our relationship with God? I have. I have more times than I can count thought that I have ruined it, missed it, God was mad, withholding from me or there was some type of deficiency with the love that God had for me.

But where we get so twisted in our thinking is where our focus is.

According to this verse the love that WE have for God isn’t what it is about.

God loved US first.

Our love for Him is second.

Question 3 –What does this verse mean to me?

A few weeks ago a neat opportunity came my way. But the first thing I did was say, “Oh no, I’m not qualified, I’m not the girl for this. Yikes.” Even though my core message is all about God using us despite all of our own inadequacies, this is still my biggest struggle. I’m just being honest.

So for the past few days I have been grounded with this thought about what a mistake these people made in thinking that I would be qualified to do this.

I almost started to email these people and give them a name of another friend who I felt would be much more qualified for this opportunity. For real.

But this morning as those words were ringing in my ears this morning, “Jesus’s love is not against us”, I’m feeling so rooted in that thought.

Sometimes, I feel like everyone and everything is against me. We’ve all been there, lets be honest. But the truth of the matter is, I think I’m not good enough for God to love me the way He does.

And the way God loves me is the way He loves everyone…you too.

Its so deep and so wide that it truly is almost impossible to comprehend.

But what happens is we have all of these mixed messages coming our way from humans that tell us what love is. Commitments, vows, promises, success, fame and titles brings us love from the world…its true.

The Bible tells us that there is nothing we can do to gain the love of God.

And on the opposite end….there is nothing we can do to lose the love of God.

Nothing.

Jesus’s love is not against us.

So in the depth of my inadequacies today, I’m speaking this truth.

His love is not against me.

I have nothing to prove. I have nothing to show. I have nothing to gain. He loves me more than enough to cover all of this…

That’s progress friends. True progress in my soul. I think I’m finally really comprehending what this 30-day journey means for me personally.

I get it…Lord. I get it.