17
The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]!
He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in
His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall
them]; He will exult over you with singing.
The Father’s love is amazing and complete, His love never
fails. I am reminded of this fact daily
as I trust Him for my daily bread, and His response. I found myself praying this morning that God
would increase the Father’s love in me that He might demonstrate that love
through me as I interact with my family and others. I am filled with questions, what does that
look like? How does that actually feel
and actualized?
How does one define the Father’s love? And how is it measured? What does it mean to be “unconditional”?
My morning devotional turned to John Piper’s blog “Desiring
God”. He talks about “Is God’s love
unconditional?” Below is the excerpt….
There is such a thing as unconditional
love in God, but it’s not what most people mean by it.
·
It’s not a saving love that he has for
everybody. Else everybody would be saved, since they would not have to meet any
conditions, not even faith. But Jesus said everybody is not saved (Matthew
25:46).
·
It’s not the love that justifies sinners since
the Bible says we are justified by faith, and faith is a condition (Romans
5:1).
·
It’s not the love of working all things together
for our good because Paul says that happens “to those who love God” (Romans
8:28).
·
It’s not the love of the most intimate
fellowship with the Father because Jesus said, “He who loves me will be loved
by my Father” (John 14:21). And James said, “Draw near to God, and he will draw
near to you” (James 4:8).
·
It’s not the love that will admit us into heaven
when we die because John says, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the
crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). And faithfulness is a condition.
How then does God love
unconditionally? Two ways (at least):
·
He loves us with electing love unconditionally.
“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . for adoption as
sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5).
·
He does not base this election on foreseeing our
faith. On the contrary, our faith is the result of being chosen and appointed
to believe, as Acts 13:48 says, “As many as were appointed to eternal life
believed.”
·
He loves us with regenerating love before we
meet any condition. The new birth is not God’s response to our meeting the
condition of faith. On the contrary, the new birth enables us to believe.
·
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been [already!] born of God,” (1 John 5:1). “[We] were born, not . . . of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
Let us pray that thousands of people
who speak of the unconditional love of God would discover the biblical meaning
of what they say. If that happened many would find their feet on solid ground.
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and
teacher of desiringGod.org.
Ephesians
1:3-14 (NIRV)
3
Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world.
They belong to us because we belong to Christ.
4
God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to
be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us. 5 So he decided
long ago to adopt us as his children. He did it because of what Jesus Christ
has done. It pleased God to do it. 6 All those things bring praise
to his glorious grace. God freely gave us his grace because of the One he
loves.
7
We have been set free because of what Christ has done. Through his blood our
sins have been forgiven. We have been set free because God’s grace is so rich. 8
He poured his grace on us by giving us great wisdom and understanding.
9
He showed us the mystery of his plan. It was in keeping with what he wanted to
do. It was what he had planned through Christ. 10 It will all come
about when history has been completed. God will then bring together all things
in heaven and on earth under one ruler. The ruler is Christ.
11
We were also chosen to belong to him. God decided to choose us long ago in
keeping with his plan. He works out everything to fit his plan and purpose. 12
We were the first to put our hope in Christ. We were chosen to bring praise to
his glory.
13
You also became believers in Christ. That happened when you heard the message
of truth. It was the good news about how you could be saved. When you believed,
he marked you with a seal. The seal is the Holy Spirit that he promised.
14
The Spirit marks us as God’s own. We can now be sure that someday we will
receive all that God has promised. That will happen after God sets all of his
people completely free. All of those things will bring praise to his glory.
More to come next time...
More to come next time...
Click the red & white arrow ↓ below to listen to the song
Come thou Fount
Written by:
Robert Robertson (1757)
Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy praise
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here by Thy great help I've come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
Oh to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Seal it
Take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above
Take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord
Take and seal it
Arrangement 2008
Lavikmusic (ASCAP) admin by EMI CMG Publishing
The music above is copyrighted by the respective artists, and is demonstrated here for educational purposes only.
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