cross love
So, maybe today, you don't feel loved. Maybe it's been a hard week. A hard year. A hard life, even.
I cannot, nor would not diminish that feeling or your experiences that have led to it...
But even in the depths of whatever you have experienced, may I speak a greater reality than the one you can see? Are you willing to train your eyes to see?
How you can know that you are loved, always and forever. Really and truly. No taking it back. No changing of minds. No walking out. Not based on what you've done or not done. Not based on what's been done to you. Not based on how you look or don't look. Are you ready?
"We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3:16a)
Know. Not merely in your head. Not merely because you've always "known." Not because you were born "knowing." But to perceive. To feel. To experience. To be intimately acquainted with. To know love.
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
To know the greatest love.
"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." (John 10:11)
The greatest love has already been demonstrated perfectly...completely. For you. To you.
Even when we were the most unlovely and unlovable. When we had nothing to offer. No advantage to give. No advantage taken. (Romans 5:7-8)
When our hearts swell to realize this beautiful truth a bit more, our very real need to be loved is met a bit more. By the only One we can be completely needy with and it be completely healthy.
You are loved. And the cross truly is the ultimate demonstration and fulfillment of everything your heart longs for. To walk around feeling deprived of love is to deny the finished work of Christ on the cross.
So this is a call to train our eyes. To look up. To fix our gaze on what is true, over our feelings, so our feelings will follow.
You are loved with the greatest love ever known...and you can know it.