Love that Transforms

by Angie Thomas

As I prayed and asked the Lord this week what He would have me share with you, He kept impressing on my heart His great love for each of you. His love that is way beyond emotional sentimentalism, but is a pure, rich, deep, abiding, sacrificial love. He desires for you to know this love in the deepest crevices of your heart and mind, that you might find comfort and rest in this love when the world presses in on you from every side, and when you see the gravity of your sin.

I have to confess that I have been struggling this week with the idea of how deeply God loves me.  I see my sin and short-comings so clearly and it grieves my heart. As I listened to a sermon this morning recounting Jesus’s horrific and sacrificial death on the cross, I have to admit it is hard for me to comprehend. Why would a perfect, sinless man suffer and die for an obstinate, sinful, and prideful wretch such as I? Romans 5:6-8 provides our answer, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

This love should COMPLETELY transform every area of our lives. He desires for us to walk out our faith with fear and trembling, relying on His grace and strength to sanctify us. But in order to to do that, we have to be assured of His deep, deep love for us in our frailty and weaknesses.  Comprehending that love is what enables us to take the drastic measures needed to cut of the arm or gouge out the eye of our sin.  As we put to death the flesh of pride, a critical spirit, self-autonomy, worry, anxiety, or fear of man, we will know and experience our risen Lord in so much more deeper and intimate ways.  I love the way Hebrews 12:1b-2b describes this so powerfully,  “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” The only way we can do this is by fixing our eyes on the cross, constantly being reminded of His great love for us!