God's Great Love

A man was overheard in a psychiatrist's office saying, "Make me sure there is a God of love and I shall go away a well man." Isn't that what we all desire deep inside of us? To make sure there is a God who loves us, despite ourselves. I was reading Embracing the Love of God by Richard Foster this morning and I realized that I don't really understand how much God loves me. I have felt God's love many, many times and there are even times when I have actually felt him right beside me. But, it's the daily reminding that he loves me with an incredible love that I struggle with. Foster tells how when God told Moses, "You shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you . . ." he was basically saying "When I look at you I smile and I want you to know that." God smiles when he looks at me? There are so many days when I really doubt that. How can God smile when I get upset with my husband or get mad at my kids? But, HE DOES! This love is deeper, larger, more vast than we can comprehend. In spite of our child-like understanding, he makes this beautiful love available for us to feel and share with others. That's tough, sharing this kind of love with others and looking at them the way God looks at us. Richard Foster describes this love beautifully, "When we love and feel and experience God's love we cannot but love ourselves. This kind of self-love is nothing like the cheap form of narcissism peddled in our culture. It is a genuine, comprehensive kind of love that is based nothing of what we do but on who we are." Who we are in Christ is what our focus should be and that's the hardest for me to get. It's a slow process for me, but I feel like God is showing me bit by bit who I am and how much he loves me. Enough of my rambling, I better sign off. I pray that God shows you too just how big his love is