This is part 13 in a 14 part series entitled Don’t Panic – Survival Guide to the Apocalypse.  Full PDF Download available free here: Don’t Panic – Survival Guide

You Are Loved

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

(Jeremiah 31:3)

I wish I could give you a picture of how much God loves you. The creator of the universe is crazy enough about YOU that He listens to not only your words, but to your unspoken requests and to the deepest desires of your heart.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

(Psalm 139:1-4)

He smiled as He designed you. He pictured your whole life story as he knit you in your mother’s womb. Before you took your first breath, He saw all your heartaches, all your elation, all the mundane in your life.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

(Psalm 139:13-16)

He knew that for the most part, you wouldn’t – couldn’t – love Him as He loves you. You would elevate many things above Him in your life – money, beauty, entertainment, achievement, friends, sex. He knew you would curse His name at some point, or even at many points. He knew that instead of spending one day a week as a “date day” with Him, you would devote your time and passions to other interests. You would disobey your parents, your employer, even the law, at times when you thought that no one was looking. He saw your anger, your bitterness, and the rages in your heart. He could see your sexual passions and lusts as you acted on them – or not – and everything done in darkness was not hidden from Him. When you took what wasn’t yours – He saw. He knew that you would wrestle with your conscience and often choose against Truth.  He knew that the deepest longings of your heart would be for the things and pleasures of this world.

And He loves you anyways.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

For you, He kept silent and turned the other cheek. For you, He took up His cross. He took up your pride and your rebellion and He bore them. Because He loves you THAT MUCH.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

God loves you more than anyone ever has or ever will. More than you can understand. He longs to have you run into His arms.

Just….. let go. Let it all go. Pour your heart out at His feet. That’s all He’s waiting for. That’s why God made the world. That’s why Jesus came to die. That’s why He’s coming back.

For you.

 

“the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Romans 3:23)

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;  it is not from works, so that no one can boast.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

 

Proceed to Chapter 13 – Occupy Until He Comes