{If I Could Tell You One Thing}

If I could tell you one thing, it would be that God loves you. If it seems like a simple statement, it's because it is. Somewhere along the line however, we have made it into a conditional, self serving, only applicable to the people we feel deserve it, type of statement. And I feel that our lack of application and sharing of God's love with those around us stems from our own lack of understanding in our individual lives.

But what if that changed. What if we really understood that God loves us? How would our lives be different? How would our interactions with others be different? How would our country and our world be different?

I grew up in the church. I grew up always "knowing" that God loved me. And I know it now. But it hasn't been until recently that God has so graciously reminded me and laid that truth on my heart, knitting it into the fabric of who I am. He loves me. Me, a sinner who at times CHOOSES to live a life contrary to his truth.  He knows what I've done. He knows who I am. He knows how I've already failed him and how I'll fail him tomorrow. But he loves me. He knew each of those things when he placed his son on the cross to die for my sins yet he chose to do it anyways. Nothing about my life or my choices surprises him. And he still loves me.

If you don't ever get anything else out of what I say in life, my prayer is that you too would know that God loves you. Let that sink in. The God of the universe, the one who spoke the world and creation into being, the one that is not bound by the limits of time or space, loves you. He loves you. And he wants a relationship with you.

He doesn't care about your past. He doesn't care about the things you've done or said. The truth is, even when you didn't realize it, he was there in those moments with you and he loved you regardless.

Sometimes people wonder why a "loving God" allows bad things to happen in the world, and its because of His love that he does. He as a loving and just God, allows man one of the greatest gifts we could ever have, free will, because he loves us. But because of that, we frequently screw things up. We make poor decisions, we give in to temptation and sin and as a result, we often find ourselves on the ground looking up.

But please don't lose heart my friends. Even in those moments, God still loves you and he is still right there with you. He is waiting for you to call out to him, take his hand, and allow him to bring you out of darkness. God doesn't take away the bad things we've seen, or done, or been through in our lives but when we allow him to, His love begins to shine light into the darkest of places and where there is light, darkness cannot remain any longer.

My prayer for the last few weeks has been that each of you will KNOW the love of a holy God. That you would begin to look at your life and you would begin to see light where there has always been darkness 

I pray that you would know that NO MATTER WHAT, God still and always will love you. Nothing you have done or will do, surprises him. He already knew it and he already died for it. Realize that freedom- he knew every sin you would ever commit against him, and he still died to forgive it. He didn't wait for you to get your life together and to stop sinning, he died for you, exactly the way you were, because he loves you.

I will not deny that I make poor decisions in my life, but God in the fullness of who he is, still loves me. He still offers peace, hope, and forgiveness wherever I am. And he wants to do the same for you.

I don't know where you are in your life today, I don't know if you're in a period of great trust in God and his love, if you're struggling to hold tightly to his love because of trials and difficulties, or if you've never really experienced the power of His love. My prayer and my hope is that WHEREVER you are, you would see God's love and power in your life in a real and tangible way. A way that is personal to YOU and that allows you to KNOW that a loving God knows you and cares about YOU. He knows every bit of who you are and he loves you.  And through that, I pray that today you would be able to trust a little more.

When I set my sights on the love of the one who sacrificed their life for me, everything about my life begins to change. And that's what God wants to do for you as well, if you will only trust in His Love. Wherever you are right now call out to Him, He will answer you and he will begin to reveal His love to you in a life changing way. I promise, He loves you. Let him show you that.