Unconditional part 4
I want to string three verses together tonight that, hopefully, will show us the "unconditional" aspect of God's unconditional love for us. Ready? Let's go. 1 Kings 8:57, "The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us nor forsake us." Which to me is kind of us trying to reassure ourselves. He was with our fathers... He's gotta be with us, right? And then Psalm 27:9, "Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." A straight up plea. Things are getting hairy down here. I'm in trouble. Break glass in case of emergency. Well... it's an emergency. Please don't leave me when I'm down and out. Because if you don't, I might be down but I'll never be out! And finally, "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Finally, when we move into the New Covenant, it's just straight up and down put out there. We don't need to worry about what anybody else has, or what anybody else is doing. Because God is with us. He said He'd never leave us nor forsake us. And He can't lie. Because He IS the truth. It's more than just, "God said it so it must be true." It's true BECAUSE God said it. It is impossible for God to lie. Let God be true and all men be liars, right? And His truth is His love. His truth is, "I love you, I love you, I love you and I'll never stop loving you." Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Not even our own issues. God didn't care that we were naked. But when something changed inside US, and all of a sudden WE cared... God gave us a covering. He gave us HIMSELF as a covering. We tried fig leaves. But the fig true couldn't bear fruit. So God gave us a covering of skins. Lamb skin. He drew us into Himself when He was lifted up on the cross. And He planted Himself in us. The Tree of Life. Which always bears fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. It ONLY bears one type of fruit. Because love is all we need. And, yes, love does come in many different shapes and sizes. It has to. So that it CAN fit into any situation. But it still boils down to love. Love is what we need. All of the time. But especially when we feel like we don't have anything. When we feel like we've given everything we've got. Or when we feel like we're missing something. It's always love. If there's a God-shaped, love-shaped hole inside you... what else could possibly fill it? Only God. And God is love. So only love can fill that hole, or that void. That's why people have been crying out for it. Especially when it feels like it's the farthest away. People who are "hard to love" need it the most. Because they aren't getting it anywhere. But we need to be strong in our faith. Secure in the truth of the matter. Which, one more time, is that God is love and He loves you. That's the ultimate truth of the universe and nothing can change it. Not even, and we're going to look at this tomorrow to close down this Rant series... you!