Our Perceptions of Living and His Love

Our Perceptions of Living and His Love
by David Brenneman

"As the Father has loved Me, I have
also loved you; abide in My love."
John 15:9

     Do you realize how profoundly God loves you? If not, you may feel discouraged and unfulfilled in your walk with Him. I can say this by experience.  When was in my mid-forties, I was a very frustrated Christian. I'd been a believer for more than thirty years, and yet something was missing from my fellowship with the Lord. But I didn't know what it was. I knew God. I prayed daily, read Scripture regularly, and served Him. But I didn't have the divine joy promised in Scripture.
     However, a transformation began as I grasped the love the Lord has for me. God loves me. As simple as that may seem, I'd never truly understood its profound significance. He cares for me personally. God revealed His powerful, bountiful, intimate, unconditional love to a very grateful Charles Stanley, and He's become more real, joyful, satisfying, and glorious to me every day since.
     That is what I pray for you. So please, take a pen or pencil and finish the sentence by writing in your name. God loves ___________.  Think about that statement. Close your eyes and say it to yourself several times each day. And accept it as true. God loves you. Personally. Completely. And He will never stop. Praise His wonderful name.

Jesus, thank You for really loving me. Amen

- Trusting God with Today, Dr. Charles Stanley.

I read this devotional last night and I was so moved by it that I printed it out to keep in front of me going forward.

What Charles Stanley describes of himself, I truly get.  I know exactly what he's talking about to the 't'.

We can be so much about life, doing this, doing that, even all the things that the Bible tells us, and yet come away feeling like Dr. Stanley says here.

Perhaps there's something of this devotional in this passage: "Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.  She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.  But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”  But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42.

We can be so busy, not just with a job, but with everything in life, even doing the right things, and will have lost sight of the good part.

We can be so about what we're doing and have such a full life going on, doing all kinds of things we dreamed of doing, yet will have neglected the greater thing as Jesus mentions.

There's warnings to the Churches of forgetting their first love. 

There's the adage to be careful of what you ask for, you just might get it.  There's wisdom and warning in that one.  We may think we have what we wanted yet in the reality of life we've become such that our true mission in life that's ours to do in Christ gets lost.  We think we're doing everything right yet have forgotten what's most important in the Lord...our relationship with Jesus.

I really do get it and do understand what he was talking about having lived it myself. 

Take this in: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6.

"This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." John 17:3.

"You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." 2 Peter 3:17-18.

You and I need to do as Dr. Stanley says here n remind ourselves throughout the day that Jesus loves us.  This is speaking truth to our soul.  This is where we will start to see what he says will come next.

In this exercise you might also start to see where you've actually been looking for love...in all the wrong places in all the wrong things...without realizing it's the missing remembrance of the love of Christ Jesus that we're missing.

Things we do, things we pursue, people we put on pedestals, will never fill that need.  Joys in these things will never last nor will they satisfy...they will leave us wanting and frustrated. 

Today I begin my day with that reminder that Jesus loves me.

Will you do the same?

All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
A corporation not for profit.  
La Habra, CA All rights reserved
www.lockman.org