by Knowing God’s Love
Knowing ‘about’ God’s love is very different than knowing God’s love. To begin learning about the depth of His love, we must first know the depth of our sin. We were born into sin and live much of our lives surrounded by it, in one form or another. Because of this, you don’t even have to be a person of faith to know right from wrong, good from evil. It exists. We know it. And we are caught in a battle, right in the middle. We all know that we’ve done wrong or even thought wrong in our lives. Simply put, those wrongs are our sins and our sins hurt God. Genesis 6:5-7 says…
“5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.”
This just reaffirms that sinning is the equivalent of hurting God. I know that I’ve left my mark on Him far too many times… thousands upon thousands of times. How about you? Since the beginning of time we’ve been hurting God with our sin, but most of the time we can’t see this… After-all, you don’t have to be a “terrible person” to sin, all you have to do is be human.
Our Mark
Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the full concept of what it means to leave our mark on God. Let me put it this way… Would you mentally, verbally, spiritually or physically hurt the person you love most in this life, over and over and over again… expecting them to forgive you, over and over and over again? The answer is no, because it would cause them pain, and like a wound it would be reopened, over and over again. So if that’s the case for us as mere human beings, then His hurt is immense. The good news is that His forgiveness and His love, is greater than our sin. Yeshua (Jesus) was tortured, mocked, beaten, and suffered greatly, then died for our sins, because of His love for us. As far as us leaving our marks, this is a perfect reflection of our sin and what we do to Him each time we sin (whether sinning intentionally or not).
This is NOT a “guilt trip”, because although we need to realize the shame in our sin, He does not want us to stay under the oppression of guilt, because through His death and resurrection He has BROKEN those chains. This is rather a reminder, that His definition and action of love is far beyond our deepest understanding.
Nine Tails
Do you know what a “cat of nine tails” is? It is an incredibly terrible and evil ancient Roman weapon (or whip) designed specifically for torture.
“If you question the exaggeration of comments or exaggerations about the damage inflicted on the victims of this weapon, here is a quote from a 3rd century historian – Eusabious of Ceasare, “their bodies were frightfully lacerated. Christian martyrs in Smyrna were so torn by the scourges that their veins were laid bare, and the inner muscles, sinews, even entrails, were exposed.” (Westminster Dictionary of the Bible page 538).
Not only was Jesus stripped, beaten, spit on, mocked, and impaled, but with this “cat of nine tails” He was whipped over and over until He was so weak He could not carry the wood that He would be crucified on any longer, to the point where someone else (Simon) had to carry it for Him.
Now when I say that I know I have left my mark on Him with my sin, thousands upon thousands of times, then it is as if each time, I pick up that whip, raise my hand, and bring it down upon Him all over again… as He takes it and endures for what?… Love. So again, how many loved one’s of yours (or anyone for that matter) would you do that to? So why do we do it to Him?
“Dear Savior, now that my being knows Your love, I feel like I could weep and rejoice all at once, because You are love. Undeserved, incomprehensible, immeasurable, deep, relentless, infinite love. You paid a monumental price for my freedom from the bondage of sin and I am in awe of You. I know that I will never be perfect, but at the very least can try with all of my being to love You back, and love others, in the same way You love me.”
His Love Continues
Isn’t it amazing to know that although we are all imperfect in so many ways, He continues to love us… blemishes, cracks, cuts, scars and all. Remember, sometimes the imperfections of things are the very things that make them perfect. This is something only God can reveal to us through His perfection… Why disappointment, why struggles, why diseases, illnesses, deformations, hardships, pain, death? Why all of these imperfections? Because sometimes, only through these things can we truly begin to see His heart, for He is with us through them all. Our imperfections remind us of our need for Him, and that reminds us of what we were created for. His plan for our lives. Not our own.
“And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28).
By our human nature, we try to fix our imperfections or fulfill ourselves, when He is the only one that can truly make us whole. We are flawed from the start, yet He continues to work through our flaws to speak life into us, when we choose to listen. He shows us the way, the truth, and the life by revealing Himself to us in times of struggle, failure, disappointment, and pain. In our hardships there is a gift of grace. This goes contrary to general human common sense, because we naturally think “How can something good come from something so bad?”, but when you look beyond our flawed perception of “sense” and see with the soul, in spiritual terms, our human logic doesn’t always coincide with His ways.
His love for us is grace in the midst of suffering, because He provides a way out, a way to rise above… a legitimate way to see that He has never left our side, and to know that He never will. Rather than just allowing us to become another sad, meaningless story, He offers us the opportunity to pursue purpose in the midst of our trials… To pursue His purpose and leave a lasting, life-changing impact on the people He puts around us, by being examples of His love, His strength, and His endurance, in the MIDST of the storms we face.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (1 Cor 2:9).
Amongst our struggles we are graced with the opportunity to draw closer to Him and become a beacon of hope, brilliantly radiating His light in a dark world, where without Him only lies hopelessness. We don’t deserve all He has done for us but God’s mercy for His people triumphs over judgement, not because we first loved Him, but because “… He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
