THE
RIGHTEOUS BASK IN HIS UNFAILING LOVE
BREAD
17 “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty
to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he
will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
10 Many
are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's
unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him. 11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing,
all you who are upright in heart! Psalms 32:10-11 (NIV)
5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.
Psalms 33:5 (NIV)
18 But
the eyes of the Lord are on those
who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love. Psalms 33:18 (NIV)
22 May
your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord,
even as we put our hope in you. Psalms
33:22 (NIV)
22 Because
of the Lord's great love we are
not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord
is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who
seeks him; 26 it is
good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-26 (NIV)
17 But
from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's
love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's
children-- 18 with
those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. Psalms 103:17-18 (NIV)
3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)
38 For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans
8:38-39 (NIV)
BUTTER
“In Jesus, we have been
affectionately named and are so secure in our Father’s love, that we are free
even to turn down a meeting request from a world famous rock star. Put another
way, the love of God, when taken hold of, frees us from any need to be noticed,
to make a name for ourselves, to find significance through achievement and
advancement or from having access to fame and fortune. We already have these
gifts and these blessings in abundance—in infinite supply—from the Father
who is not blind to our value but who sees us and loves us dearly.” Scott
Sauls
“Those who seek to be still and quiet will find a beautiful portal through which God’s voice of love can be heard in a world that drowns it in interference. After all, it’s God who said, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ It seems evident that that knowing is connected to being still. So we can be still and know that God is God or stay very busy and wonder if we are.” Nicole Johnson
“Many
people have difficulty believing God is a God of love….If you really want to
know the reality of God’s love, look at the Cross….It was love that restrained
Him when He was falsely accused of blasphemy and led to Golgotha to die with common
thieves. He raised not a hand against
His enemies. It was love that kept Him
from calling legions of angels to come to His defense. It was love that made Him, in a moment of
agonizing pain, pause and give hope to a repentant sinner who cried, ‘Lord,
remember me when You come into Your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42)….Does God love
us? Yes….and the proof is the Cross.” Billy
Graham
“Ecstasy and
delight are essential to the believer’s soul and they promote sanctification.
We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration, and the Christian who
goes for a long time without the experience of heart-warming will soon find
himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not, as
he ought, from the Spirit of God. The soul is so constituted that it craves
fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for
satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones… The believer is in spiritual
danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the
love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior’s presence. When
Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent
search of other lovers… By the enjoyment of the love of Christ in the heart of
a believer, we mean an experience of the “love of God shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given to us” (Rom. 5:5)… because the Lord has made
himself accessible to us in the means of grace, it is our duty and privilege to
seek this experience from Him in these means till we are made the joyful
partakers of it.” John
Flavel (1630-1691)
“For
the love of God is broader than the measures of man’s mind; and the heart of
the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.” Frederick William Faber
“Wherefore it
follows that God created the whole world for the manifestation of his love and
goodness to the rational part of the world. Therefore there will doubtless be a
time wherein God will fully manifest his love to good men, to those that answer
the end of their creation. But reason tells us that they that fully enjoy the
love of God must be exceeding happy beyond compare: for how happy are men
sometimes in the love one of another. How much more happy, then, must they
necessarily be in the enjoyment of the love of him who is infinitely greater,
better and more excellent than any creature.” Jonathan Edwards
“‘There is no fear
in love’, writes the apostle John, ‘but perfect love drives out fear…’ He goes
on to point to the source of that perfect love:
‘We love because He first loved us”.
In other words, the cure to fear is not a change in circumstances,
rather a deep grounding in the love of God.
I ask God to reveal His love to me directly, or through my relationships
with those who also know Him—a prayer I think God takes great delight in
answering. When I get depressed about my
present failures, I ask God to remind me of my true identity: one who will be
made perfect and has already been forgiven. ‘You’ve got to go deeper’, said the
nun to my burned out pastor. ‘Sink the
well into a water table that never runs dry’…Thomas Merton conceded that
everything in modern city life conspires against such surrender. We worry (fear) about money, about what we
need to have and to know, about whom to compete with and what is slipping out
of our control…(he) found the secret to true freedom: If we live to please God alone (the One who
loves us), we set ourselves free from the cares and worries that press in on
us.”
Phillip Yancey
I am
complete in Christ. Colossians 2:9-10
I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:14-16
I am free from condemnation. Romans 8:1-2
I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances. Romans 8:28
I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God. Romans 8:31-39
I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me. Philippians 1:6
I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 Ann Voskamp
I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:14-16
I am free from condemnation. Romans 8:1-2
I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances. Romans 8:28
I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God. Romans 8:31-39
I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me. Philippians 1:6
I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 Ann Voskamp
“Ultimately the man who comes to obey God will love Him
first…Let us therefore learn that the love of God is the beginning of religion,
for God will not have the forced obedience of men, but wishes their service to
be free and spontaneous…Lastly we learn that God does not linger over the outward
sign of achievement but chiefly searches the inner disposition (motive), that
from a good root good fruit may grow.” John
Calvin
HEART SAVOR
- · God’s love motivates me to go further still both in the knowledge of Him and in the Presence of the One Who so delights in me as well as all who love Him. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:10-16 (NIV)
- · God’s perfect love drives out fear.
- · God’s love is far superior to the worldly Hollywood portrayal of love. This love is only possible through the power pf the Holy Spirit living within the follower of Christ. Scripture defines Biblical love as patient, kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is no self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the Truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails. Everything Jesus portrayed. 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:5-6 (NIV)
