Sunday, February 24, 2019

A Prayer

Father,

You are so good to us. Eternity will not be enough time to list the ways. You are the God who loves us. For too many, those are just words to say. But there is something awesome about the fact of Your love, Your love for us.

Father, why would You bother with us? You didn't need to create someone to love. For all eternity You loved as Father, Son and Spirit. So, why go to the trouble of creating us? But that’s what You did. And You did that so that You could love us. Will we ever be able to understand why?

But there’s more to it than that. Newly created and deeply loved in a new world that was ready to be explored and enjoyed, we rejected You. We rejected Your love. We believed the lies of the serpent, chose poorly and turned away. That should have been the end of it, the end of us. Who could complain if You shut everything down right then? End of creation. End of humanity. But that’s not what You did. No, You continued to love us. You promised a redeemer who would rescue us so that You could love us in the way You wanted, in the way You originally intended. And because of Your love, You included an uncountable number to be rescued by this redeemer. You even included us.

But we still have problems believing in Your love. We doubt Your love so often. How else can our fears and worries and anxieties be understood? When we give in to such evils, we are acting out our unbelief. We're assuming that You won't come through. You won't love in the way that You have said You would. How awful! How shameful! And yet, You still love us. Amazing.

So, we ask Father, that You would forgive us for how we insult Your love with our unbelief. Forgive us. And change us. Change us so that we would come to the place of knowing for sure that You really do love us and that nothing, absolutely nothing in all of creation, will ever be able to change that. Grant us Your grace so that this would happen.

We look forward, Father, to the day when all of our doubts will be gone, when the depths of our souls will be convinced that we are loved. That is when we will enjoy to the fullest Your greatest gift of love. That is when we get to enjoy You. Amen.