Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 8:35-39  NIV
“For the Love of God” is a phrase that can be blasphemous.  It can be used in anger and frustration, but today I am using it in it’s simplest form.  I want to relay to you the truth of the love of God.  The truth of the love of God is that you can’t escape it.  Psalm 139:7-10 speaks of trying to escape God’s presence.  We serve a God who is omnipresent meaning He is everywhere. The psalmist says that wherever we go God’s hand shall lead us and his right hand will hold us.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I am glad for this.  You see, I have managed to get myself in places I had no business being.  I have managed to make a mess of things in my life.  I thank God that even my stupidity could not separate me from His love.  I thank God that he stood right there gently nudging me to return to Him.  I thank God for the prayers that I know that my saved loved ones must have prayed for me to get back on the straight and narrow. Most of all I thank God for his steadfast love.

Human love is fickle.  We may love someone one minute then they do something to make us mad and we no longer love them.  Others may do the same to us.  But God’s love is steadfast and it endures.  Now as you are reading this, let me caution you against something.  We can’t escape God’s love.  He is always going to love us.  However, we can reject God’s love.  His love is something that we can choose to accept or reject.  God always loves us, but he never forces His love on us.  It is there for the taking.

If you will recall the story of Jonah, then you know that God told Him to go to Tarshish and Jonah tried to flee from God.  Jonah wound up in a boat that was about to capsize and went overboard to wind up spending a few days in the belly of a very large fish which we think was probably a whale.  Things did not go so well for Jonah when he ran from God.  Things did not go so well for me when I ran from God.  But, oh, when I ran to God, that was a game changer.  My life went from chaos, turmoil, and disaster to love, peace, and joy.  Neat how that works, isn’t it?

I don’t know what your life is like today, but I promise you that it will be much better when you accept the love of Christ.  The bible tells us in Romans 5:8 that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.  You don’t have to clean yourself up to come to God.  He will take you as you are and clean you up.  Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that God is in our midst and He is mighty and can save us.  This scripture tells us that He will rejoice over us with gladness, quiet us by his love and exult over us with loud singing.

But there is one very important thing that you need to know.  Deuteronomy 7:9 tells us that we are to know that our God is God and he is faithful and his love is steadfast for those who love Him and keep His commandments.  Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

You see, if you love God back, He’s got your back.  But if you reject Him, there will come a point when He will allow you to do it your way.  He will actually give you over to evil (Romans 1:24).  Now I have seen this happen and I can tell you that I know people right now that are experiencing this and I truly believe that they have been given over to their own evil desires and there is little hope for them. You can reach a point of no return.

This is why it is so important that we turn to God right now, today.  Time is short, my friend.  Don’t get caught unaware.  God loves you.  All you have to do is accept His love and love Him back and He will take good care of you.  1 John 5:3 says, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.  And His commandments are not burdensome.  

The bottom line is this, if you love God then you want to honor Him by obeying Him and keeping His commandments.  You want to please Him.  When we love God and put Him first, the last thing we want to do is sin against Him.  My prayer for you today is that you are experiencing the love, peace and joy that comes from a loving relationship with Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior.  If you are not, then what are you waiting for?  He’s just a prayer away.  Run to Him now, before it’s too late.

Have a great day!