Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

Love—The Thing That We All Want!

 

Meditation for the week of August 9, 2009

Romans 8:38-9
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A number of popular songs have lyrics with variations on the theme that love makes the world go ’round.  Love is perhaps the most important emotional element in early childhood development and it is certainly something that everyone wants.  The Lord tells us that our main purpose is to love Him and to love our neighbors, but most of us cannot do that unless we are secure in the fact that we are loved.   Most of us are looking for love and, until we find it, we have difficulty showing love.  Our relationship with God is that way.  John says, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

According to the Bible, God is love (1 John 4:8) and God loves us (John 3:16).  He tells us that He loves us.  He has proven that He loves us.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  His love is the greatest love that can be shown to us according to  John15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  Yet, if you are like me, there are some days when you don’t feel loved. 

Job must have wondered about God’s love when he was smitten with boils and when he lost his family and wealth. At times the writers of the Psalms thought God had forgotten them.  Of course, even when God is showing His love, we sometimes think He has joined the enemy and is against us.   Hebrews 12:6 reminds us, “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."

I take courage in the FACT that nothing can separate those of us who are saved from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  He died for us and has expressed God’s love to us.  I have to believe that when things are going well and when things aren’t.  I have to believe that when others are expressing the love of God to me and when they aren’t.  God says it so it must be true.  When I start appreciating the FACT of God’s love, then I can start appreciating the practical experience of being loved.  When God’s love for me is being enjoyed and experienced, loving others should be the normal result. 

This promise is made to the elect or to the saved.  I do not believe the unsaved have the same promise or the same security.  They go through life looking for love and when the end comes, they will have found that they rejected the only one who would truly love them as they are unconditionally.  To miss out on that is one of the great losses associated with rejecting the claims of Christ.  The unsaved have the “wrath of God abiding on them” (John 3:36).  They are “condemned already”  (John 3:18). 

There are those who think we can be saved and lost again.  I understand why they believe that since there are people who once loved the Lord and who now reject His claims. Only I don’t think this verse allows for that conclusion.  There are many things I don’t understand.  But I do understand what God means when He says through Paul that nothing can separate us from the love of God. 

I don’t have to earn God’s love. I don’t have to wonder if God is going to change His mind and not love me any more when I do something wrong.  All I have to do is accept and enjoy His love.  And that I am determined to do.  Hopefully, then I will be able to show that love to someone who needs it so that they too can enjoy the unconditional love of God. 

God has enough love to go around.

Bruce Collins

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