I hate cliche phrases. Let me just say that, right now. The phrase, "Jesus loves me" is super cliche. I hate to say that as it sounds highly sacrilegious (and, let's not be trite, is). That's because that phrase has been totally worn out, overused, and spouted off without a hint of passion. We say it because we're supposed to. We "believe" it for the same reason. We're supposed to.
My entire faith is founded on this belief. This is elementary doctrine, for crying out loud! Little kids sing it in Sunday school. Evangelists preach it from the streets. We sing about it in every hymn and worship song out there. But how many of us actually, truly, with our hearts, believe it?
I don't.
I mean, I do.
And I don't.
I want to believe it. I'm desperate to believe it. I talk about it and say that it's true. I convince others that it is. But something inside of me resists the belief that a God as big and powerful and amazing as the Almighty would possibly love someone like me. It is almost unfathomable for my puny little mind to grasp that He could genuinely love me. Why would He want to?
But, the more I search the Scriptures, the more evidence I find for His love.
Take 1 John 3:1 "How great the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And this is what we are."
Whoa. Lavish is a big word. It implies extravagance. Excessiveness. It's how you'd describe the guy who has a party that is over-the-top ridiculous, but absolutely mind-blowing and the talk of the whole town. It's not the term you use to describe the powerful but DISTANT god that I've come to believe in. Especially when the thing being lavished is love. Towards me. Puh-lease. I stopped believing in fairy tales a LONG time ago.
Another one of these crazy and absurd verses is Ephesians 1:3 "For He chose us in Him, before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight."
What on earth was this guy thinking? God chose me? Really...you expect me to buy that?
Nonetheless, as I've genuinely pondered these Scriptures (as ridiculous as they may seem), something very strange and wonderful is becoming apparent. While it may seem logical to me that a God as awesome as He claims to be couldn't possibly love me, I'm starting to realize that there's a fallacy in my logic. You see, to claim that He doesn't or couldn't love me is to lessen who He is. It's making Him out to be way small and insignificant.
A god whose powerful? Mighty? Egotistical? I can buy that. But a God whose personal and intimate and caring? A God who "humbles himself" and shows up on earth as a man? A God who submits himself unto death, even death on a cross? That's crazy! It defies logic. And yet, it's wonderful, glorious, and in it's defiance, satisfies logic in a way that my futile religion cannot.
It is because He's personal, because He's intimate, because He comes down to our level...that is what makes this God so incredible. That is what sets the gospel of Jesus Christ apart from every other account of god--even mine. It is only God, whose ways are far beyond me, that could love--and chooses to love--even someone as insignificant as me.
"How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And this is what we are." (1 John 3:1)
In essence, "Jesus loves me.
This I know."
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