Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover. Remember this the next time you read the last book of the Bible. Its title page is emblazoned with these words, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1) and not “The Revelation of How the World will End.” If you study this book only to decipher it for hidden clues of the end times, you are missing the greatest signpost of all, the blazing eyes of Jesus, calling for His bride.
When we pray, remember:
1. The love of God that wants the best for us.
2. The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.
3. The power of God that can accomplish it.
Separation never comes from His side. He is always ready for communion with a prepared heart, and in this happy communion the bride becomes ever fairer, and more like to her Lord. She is being progressively changed into His image, from one degree of glory to another, through the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit, until the Bridegroom can declare:— Thou art all fair, My love; And there is no spot on thee. And now she is fit for service, and to it the Bridegroom woos her; she will not now misrepresent Him.
Jesus imparts, through the way that He loves us, the ability to love others deeply and freely. The love of Jesus makes it possible to truly care for, fight for, and serve our friends without worry or fear that they will not love us back. The love of Jesus frees us from the need to fight for ourselves, to protect ourselves, or take the weaknesses and deficiencies of those we love personally. His love is what makes true friendships endure the difficult seasons of life.
March 15, 2020
One of the greatest theological errors I can make is to associate the level of God’s goodness with my personal comfort. He is ultimately, intrinsically good regardless of my emotional state.
February 13, 2020
Spiritual reading is a regular, essential part of the life of prayer, and particularly is it the support of adoring prayer. It is important to increase our sense of God’s richness and wonder by reading what his great lovers have said about him.
We are filled and refilled with the ceaseless, unstoppable love of God.
I am convinced that virtually everything in an individual believer’s life hinges on his or her deliberate belief and active acceptance of the lavish, unconditional love of God. I’m not sure we can be reminded too often of God’s absolute priorities for our lives. No matter how different our gifts, personalities, denominations, or styles of worship, God’s chief priority for each one of us is that we love Him with everything in us. But like two chambers in one heart, the lifeblood of His first priority cannot flow apart from the second: that we love others as ourselves.
Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely… He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken.
When, through the open door of the cross and the name and power of Jesus Christ, I commend myself to the Father’s heart, then God cancels all my past, accepts all my present, swears His holy name for my future and the love of God take me over. Then fear goes out of my heart because love has come in.