Appreciating God's Love
With Valentine's Day on Tuesday, I thought I'd give you some thoughts to mull over regarding your most amazing love relationship; the one you have with your Father in Heaven.
I read a story a couple of years ago about a vendor who sold bagels for 50 cents each at a street corner food stand. A jogger ran past and threw a couple of quarters into the bucket but didn’t take a bagel. He did the same thing every day for months. One day, as the jogger was passing by, the vendor stopped him. The jogger said, “You probably want to know why I always put money in but never take a bagel, don’t you?” “No,” said the vendor. “I just wanted to tell you that the bagels have gone up to 60 cents.”
I’m afraid that the vendor in that story is more like us than we want to admit. God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son to die and pay the penalty for our sin while we were still sinners! (Romans 5:8) There was no reason for God to make this provision on our behalf other than His grace. He saw our need and took every measure necessary to provide for that need. If God never did anything else for us, we would spend eternity praising Him and not be able to repay His kindness.
That isn’t all that God did, however. If you would take the time to review the first eleven verses of Romans 5, you would notice phrases repeated several times that indicate that God did something; and then did even more. "Not only that," but God continued to accomplish something else…take a couple of minutes to read that section.
God’s blessings to us only began when we placed our faith in Christ as Savior. He multiplies His blessings over and over. His love and faithfulness are so generous and lavish that Jeremiah described them as “new every morning.”
As we move through the day that celebrates love and relationships, let’s be sure that we take some time to remember that God’s love for us resulted in a relationship that we could never have earned on our own. It is such a great gift to us that we will spend all of eternity with Him, enjoying that relationship.
Maybe it is a good time to reflect a little. Too often we become frustrated by the circumstances of life and the specifics of our situation. God has been “dropping quarters into our bucket” for a long time now, and we seem to stop all too often just to let Him know that the cost for our appreciation has increased.
Take a few moments today to thank your Heavenly Father for His grace and kindness toward you. He loves you more than you can adequately express…but try anyway.
I read a story a couple of years ago about a vendor who sold bagels for 50 cents each at a street corner food stand. A jogger ran past and threw a couple of quarters into the bucket but didn’t take a bagel. He did the same thing every day for months. One day, as the jogger was passing by, the vendor stopped him. The jogger said, “You probably want to know why I always put money in but never take a bagel, don’t you?” “No,” said the vendor. “I just wanted to tell you that the bagels have gone up to 60 cents.”
I’m afraid that the vendor in that story is more like us than we want to admit. God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son to die and pay the penalty for our sin while we were still sinners! (Romans 5:8) There was no reason for God to make this provision on our behalf other than His grace. He saw our need and took every measure necessary to provide for that need. If God never did anything else for us, we would spend eternity praising Him and not be able to repay His kindness.
That isn’t all that God did, however. If you would take the time to review the first eleven verses of Romans 5, you would notice phrases repeated several times that indicate that God did something; and then did even more. "Not only that," but God continued to accomplish something else…take a couple of minutes to read that section.
God’s blessings to us only began when we placed our faith in Christ as Savior. He multiplies His blessings over and over. His love and faithfulness are so generous and lavish that Jeremiah described them as “new every morning.”
As we move through the day that celebrates love and relationships, let’s be sure that we take some time to remember that God’s love for us resulted in a relationship that we could never have earned on our own. It is such a great gift to us that we will spend all of eternity with Him, enjoying that relationship.
Maybe it is a good time to reflect a little. Too often we become frustrated by the circumstances of life and the specifics of our situation. God has been “dropping quarters into our bucket” for a long time now, and we seem to stop all too often just to let Him know that the cost for our appreciation has increased.
Take a few moments today to thank your Heavenly Father for His grace and kindness toward you. He loves you more than you can adequately express…but try anyway.
Thank you for sharing the Word with us and the power of HIS TRUTH.....the Grace and kindness extended to us does blow my mind. So enjoy reading your blog post it's like sitting under your teaching once again as a teenager.
ReplyDeleteBlessing to you and Jodi in your service to Christ and in the lives of so many!
Thanks Heidi. It rejoices my heart to see you and your family faithfully serving the Lord as our colleagues in ministry. God is good.
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