Perfect Love

Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and keeps no record of being wronged.   It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endured through every circumstance.  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Go slowly over that passage.  Read it aloud.  Now stop and think.  That is how our Father loves us.  

Specifically, love keeps no records of being wronged.   Think about that.  Those of us who live in guilt, who wallow in the pit of never good enough and never get it right.   I’ve lived there.  I still visit those prisons way to often.  I’ve been to the place of feeling like a failure and disappointment in my Father’s eyes.  Everyday I feel that way at some point.  I mean, how could He possible love someone like me?   

But that’s the point  He does.  He loves perfectly.  Completely.  Eternally.  I've come across a new study by Ted Dekker, called "The Forgotten Way."  It's theme is to teach us to remember who God is and who we are in Him....in Him completely.  And how we can love as He loves.  In this book/study we learn that He is a Father who keeps no records of wrongs.  He doesn't stack up our sins and wait to punish us, but loves us unconditionally.  Jesus Himself paid the price for our sins, so why would He then hold them against us?  God Himself has said , "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west."  Psalm 103:12    Ephesians 1:4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

We are in Christ and seen as righteous.  And God does not accredit our sin to us any longer.  We do not bear the guilt, we do not look ugly in His eyes.  We are beautiful and precious to Him.

Accepting God's love is a struggle for me.  I know my own heart and thoughts too well.  But to really believe this, really accept this perfect love, will free us to be the people that God calls us to be.  We can't love others until we fully experience His love of us, til we believe it for ourselves.  I'm learning this, after all these years as a Christian, really learning it for the first time.  God's love keeps no record of my wrongs.  

As an aside, this does not mean we can live a willy nilly, undisciplined, sinful life style....Oh no!  Just the opposite.  Because why would I want to live anyway other than to please the One who loves me limitlessly!  

Look closely at those verses at the start.  Speak them to yourself everyday, knowing that is the way God loves you.  Pray the Lord will help you believe and grow in this knowledge.  

Thank You Lord, for the love You have for me and for all of us.  I'm learning.  Let this be an experience for all of us, everyday.  Let it go beyond head knowledge to a deep living truth in our hearts and lives.  In Jesus' precious Name.  Amen. 

Ephesians 3:15-19 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.[a] 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.