| I love giving you a monthly devotional here. I hope and pray that I encourage you or help you learn something about God each month. However, an illness that took my entire family under for about a week in late January, and I didn’t pray as much about what to say for this month as normal. I don’t want to spew words on a page. I want everything I write – from my books, to social media posts, to this blog – to have meaning. So when I realized I missed sending out my monthly newsletter (and thus, this blog),, I prayed, “God, what do You want me to tell them? And please make it quick.” I felt like He asked me, “What’s the rush? Just tell them that I love them.” That’s what it’s all about, right? (And with Valentine’s Day in February, it seemed appropriate. I think God planned that.) God created us just so He could love us. He wanted a relationship with us. From the very beginning of creation, when everything was perfect, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). He loved spending time with His creation. Then we messed up and sin entered the world. It broke that connection we had with God. He still loved us, but we couldn’t love Him right. Because of His love, though, He had a plan. Our sin brought death and pain into the world, so God sent His only Son into the world to die and feel pain, just so He could raise from the dead and defeat death. Thus, He defeated sin. Romans 5:8 (ESV) says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Not when we got our lives together. Not when we did something right. But while we were still like pigs wallowing in the mud of our sin and destruction, Jesus came and died for us. He took our sins and bore our punishment, just so that God could have a relationship with us again. He sends His Spirit to the world so that He can be with us on Earth after being redeemed, while we wait for the complete restoration and relationship with Him in Heaven. If you are a Christian, I want you to pause and remember what your life was like before. What has Jesus saved you from? Take time to remember what He has done for you – what He has saved you from. And thank Him. If you are not a Christian, please know God is very much alive and does love you tons. More than we could ever imagine. If you have any questions on what it means to be a Christian or who God is, or anything like that, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email and ask. I do not judge. I remember what I was like before I was a Christian, and it was just as ugly as anything you could throw at me. This devotional isn’t anything new. You probably knew all this already. But it is so important to remind ourselves how much God loves us. It’s important to bask in His love. |
