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this is my word for the moment – lavish!
God’s love towards us is so lavish!
He lavishes his love and grace upon us.
Matthew 7:7- 11
Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.
Hebrews 4:14-16
We have a great high priest, who has gone into heaven, and he is Jesus the Son of God. That is why we must hold on to what we have said about him. Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.
Psalm 103:8-12
The LORD is merciful! He is kind and patient, and his love never fails. The LORD won’t always be angry and point out our sins; he doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve. How great is God’s love for all who worship him? Greater than the distance between heaven and earth! How far has the LORD taken our sins from us? Farther than the distance from east to west!
God’s love is so lavish. We can bravely and boldly approach his presence and throne of grace and throne of holiness and find all we need because God is lavish and abundant in his love. Do we see God as a crusty old judge with a stick ready to beat us at every move??? that is not a correct persception of God. get into your heart how lavish the love of God is towards you.
it was lavishly expressed in the life of Jesus.
it was lavishly exprsesed in the sacrifice of Jesus.
it is lavishly expressed in God alive in me, making me new, transforming me, accepting me.
Lavish.
great word.
1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
I believe God does desire us to Know Him and make Him known by reflecting Him. He desires us to spend time with Him, trusting Him, getting to know Him.
God desires us to come to maturity in Him, to be transformed into the likeness of His Son Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Psalm 17:15
And I—in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.
Romans 8:29
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.
John 15:2
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit.
He desires us to walk holy with Him and wholly with Him, along His road – because obedience pleases Him, and because it is the best road (not to say it is a road of propserity or happy happy joy joy as it is the narrow road and a cross bearing road, a road of fire and flood but it is the way of holiness, and the way He has prepared and walks with us)
This road is a road that tests us and shapes us. It is a road that teaches us patience, love, forgiveness, self-control and all the attributes of Christ. It is a road that teaches us to surrender for the glory of God. As Job said in Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in Him.” It is a road that makes us sometimes ask WHY GOD, but then lay at His feet praying “Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done, in my life…”
Circumstances occur that shape us; difficulties in this world in our relationships, with money, with illness, with emotional struggles, with self doubts, with fears, with many things. These are all opportunities to let God transform us. These are opportunities for us to pray and lean upon our Lord, our Provider, our Healer, our Comforter, our Father. They are opportunities for the cross to work in our lives.
We are not alone as we walk this road.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has taken you but what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation also will make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it.
Matthew 11:29
Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls.
John 14:16-18
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
Hebrews 4:16
Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We can pray. We can seek God.
Psalm 73:16
“When I thought deeply in order to understand this, it was painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.”
We can surround ourselves with encouraging God loving people, who also pray and also are wise and can see our circumstances for what they are, and strengthen us when we feel weak. God puts us in families, natural families, extended families and church families. He gives us friends. Seek wise counsel.
We need to walk with God. We need to abide in Him, which to me means we need to trust Him, and know His Word, allowing that to be the framework we base our decisions, our thoughts, our structure upon.
John 15:4-5
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Above all else, we need to choose today to obey and follow God. We need to choose to surrender. We need to choose to walk where our Lord leads us. We need to choose to lean upon Him
When Jesus says, “Come to me,” he doesn’t say come to religion, come to a system, or come to a certain doctrine. This is a very personal invitation to a God, and invitation to a Savior.
Our God is not aloof—he’s not so far above us that he can’t see and understand our problems. Jesus isn’t a God who stayed on the mountaintop—he’s a Savior who came down and lived and worked with the people. Everywhere he went, the crowds followed, drawn together by the magnet that was—and is—the Savior.
The life of Jesus Christ is a message of hope, a message of mercy, a message of life in a dark world.
There is nothing standing in the way of us coming to God… except ourselves. We are the only obstacle we face. Jesus has made the way for us to come to God. His death can make us new and forgiven and clean and holy. When Jesus died the veil between the Holy of Holies, the most holy place of hte Jewish temple where the presence of God dwelled, was torn. The veil was torn from top to bottom to show us all that there was now a way to God.
Jesus says come.
Come to me.
and we who are christians can come to him and find all we need. peace. hope. rest. comfort. encoruagement. courage. faith. healing. strength. security. love. though life is not easy we can be confident that Jesus walks with us, is with us always, even to the end of the world.
there is nothing that stands between us and Jesus, except ourselves. Again we ourselves put the obstacles there. Hebrews 4 says that we now can with boldness come to God’s throne and find grace at our time of need. We are God’s children and he does not turn us away.
There is nothing that seperates us from teh love of God. Jesus gave his all that we might know God.
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