When I started college, God met me where I was at and I was pierced by the Gospel. My life has been changed ever since. The more I walk with Jesus, the more I see my constant need for Him and His power in my life. I’m humbled as I still struggle with relying on my own strength. I know that I can’t earn His love or approval, but when I take a step back, I often find myself living that way. Yet God is changing my heart and reminding me where my identity lies. In Him and His Gospel. Not in my works.
It’s amazing to read in the book of Matthew when Jesus is getting baptized and it says that the heavens were opened and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17)
This means that His Father is well pleased, delights in, cherishes, loves Jesus fully and perfectly before he started his ministry, he raises the dead, heals the sick, seeks after the lost, goes to the cross, uncovers the eyes of the blind, and everything else. Because Jesus is His son.
This means that Our Father is well pleased, delights in us, cherishes us, loves us perfectly before we do anything. Before we get that promotion at work, before we pass an exam in school, before we lead a bible study well, before we do anything. Because we are His daughters.
I’ve been told that God loves me since I was a little girl. For the majority of my life, I didn’t necessarily believe that because of the pride and shame that was harboring within me. I made so many mistakes in the past that I didn’t think a Holy God could love someone as broken as me. I’m learning to fully believe that a holy God loves me in my mess because of Jesus and it’s changing my life radically.
Right now I work abroad on a college campus and my job is to build relationships with college students seeking to share the love of God with them. Living in a new country I find myself regularly relying on my own strength. Doing life with people is spontaneous, surprising, messy, and really fun. But I can get caught up in what I’m doing and not doing. Yet time after time Jesus continues to show me that He loves me. It seems so simple and elementary, like what I learned when I was a little girl. But it’s changing the way I see everything.
In the book of Luke, after Jesus had sent out seventy-two of his disciples, they came back rejoicing about the miracles they saw. Jesus’ reply is sobering:
“See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17-20)
When God gave His power to the seventy-two, He protected them from the enemy. Naturally, they were rejoicing about the supernatural they had just seen and experienced. Jesus replies with a total perspective shift and tells them that they shouldn’t get caught up in the power or successful things they do, but to rejoice first in the salvation that comes from The Lord. When we have a relationship with Jesus, it means that our names are written in the book of Heaven. In Revelation, it says that our names can never be erased. Our salvation is found and secured in Jesus alone and there isn’t anything that we can do to lose that. We should always rejoice about that. That secure love and approval we have in Christ.
Rejoice with me in being fully loved and fully accepted by a great God. May everything we do overflow from this adoration, love, and relationship that we have with our Father.
