“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!” Matthew 13:44-46 NLT
In the above verse, Jesus is telling His own story.
The story of a man who found something so precious, that he happily sold all he had and paid the price for it.
Whatever your day looks like, I pray that today you stop for a minute and realize that your Savior sees you as a priceless pearl worth leaving heaven and all His rights for.
The reason He came to earth as a babe to redeem the treasure that is worth the high price He paid on the Cross- YOU.
“Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.“
“This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. Delightfully loved ones, if he loved us with such tremendous love, then ‘loving one another’ should be our way of life!” 1 John 4:10-11 The Passion Translation
We are loved long before we love God.
However, it seems to me that the majority of the time, we are trying to grow our love for God instead of living in the expanse of God’s proven love for us.
We work hard to do the right things instead of simply resting in the righteousness of Jesus, the rightness of Jesus.
He was right with God, He sacrificed Himself so we could be right with God. It’s done.
That is it.
That is love.
When we stop striving to be good enough for God to love and simply receive the unearnable love of God, it feels like a gift.
Because it is.
Are you living loved or striving for it today?
You are accepted right this minute. You are forgiven right this minute. You are delightfully loved right this minute.
Receive the gift of being ridiculously loved right this minute.
Then love someone else in the same way God is loving you: ridiculously, completely and luxuriously.
May the luxurious love of God for you transform the way you see yourself and treat yourself today. Then may it spill over onto everyone else.
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
2 Peter 1:2-3
All relationships have to be give and take in order to be healthy.
This includes your relationship with God.
Your “give” to God: to journey with Him and hold nothing back.
So what is your “take”?
Your “take” is to partake of God’s promises, dwell in His presence and walk in His power in every area of your life.
This taking is not a selfish act, it is a trusting one.
There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.”
Matthew 6:25, 26 MSG
Life with God is about being filled with His love and then pouring it out on all those around you.
It is worshipping Him when we wake, when we walk, when we clean, when we work, when we eat, when we get dressed.
It is knowing you are saved by grace and reconciled to Him because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
It is knowing He loves you because you are His kid and He enjoys spending time with you.
My friend, you are a child of God who is cherished, chosen and provided for.
Live in the freedom of His love.
Live care-less in the care of God.
Live more in this truth and less in the lie that you are valued because of what you look like, eat, wear or do.
This life, this love, this security comes from Jesus and is unshakable.
God’s love for you is for right now. Not later. Now.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, God’s love cuts right through the business of life and breathes into you the very heart of it- His heart, His LIFE.
“For right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
Just A Minute 