Lord, You are so ready to save, so quick to rescue. You aren’t standing so far off, begrudgingly showing us grace–it is so delightful, Your rescue of us. You long to be gracious.
And I? I am still that obstinate child, refusing your love and care. I want to go my own way and follow my own plans.
I don’t know how to accept love like this. I feel like the whole of my life has been You blessing me and me refusing to accept Your love. I still think in earthly terms like this love correlates to something in me. I see my disgusting insides and the beauty of Your love and they just don’t match up. I think there’s supposed to be a correlation and there just isn’t. I’m not sure how to handle that.
So in turn I go between refusing your love and trying to earn it–commending myself for my actions or condemning myself for them. Either way, it’s still all about me.
But Agape is not at all like that. It is completely separate from my actions. It is even separate from my person. It is only because You are love. It flows from Your character.
This is why Your love is so radical in the prophets. It isn’t based at all on the people’s actions. So when they rebel and You are still entirely gracious to them, it makes sense. It has nothing to do with how they live.
It is not about me. I excist to show what radical sort of love this is. What crazy love this is.
Pttyann said,
November 23, 2008 at 4:12 pm
For sure! God is so awesome and so is the way he loves us. Enjoyed your post.
Love in Christ
fireball3316 said,
November 23, 2008 at 5:29 pm
i am so glad that God loves us – that he loves us first. i agree, our lives are responding to his love. thanks for sharing. great post! blessings, fireball
Rachel said,
November 26, 2008 at 3:22 pm
LOVE IT!! It is so true. God’s love is about Him not us – and thank goodness. And it is a love unlike anything we have expereinced and yes it is hard to take in –
Rachel