A Love that Puts Us at Rest

You are loved and you are lovable. It’s proven by a fierce, unyielding love of a God who made the first move.

I was 12 years old when I first encountered the love of Jesus. The circumstances surrounding the encounter were pretty unspectacular, you may even consider them trivial. I was away on a trip with friends, and due to a disagreement (a very pre-teen disagreement), I found myself alone in our hotel room sulking while the group went downstairs to dinner.

In that moment I didn’t do anything I was supposed to do — I didn’t pray, I didn’t repent, and I don’t even remember feeling the slightest bit of remorse for the part I played in the argument. I just popped in some boy band CD to my walkman and stared at the ceiling.

And yet, it was in that very moment of wrongness, both being wronged and having been wrong, I encountered an overwhelming sense that God was with me and God was for me. Not because of my rightness, but because of His righteousness. In the natural, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s the Kingdom way.

Scripture tells us that we love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
Since that night, I’ve experienced His love again and again in many tangible ways. I’ve also experienced many disagreements with people I love and many nights marked by loneliness, pride, and hurt. As I grow older, the circumstances surrounding heartbreaks are less trivial and at times I’m tempted to believe their effects are more permanent. However, I’ve been marked by the fierce love of a God who cares deeply for our hearts.

As a recovering people pleaser, I worked hard to make myself more lovable. I’ve wasted a lot of effort and resources in my attempts to be more likable. But likability is a flimsy thing and I found myself drowning in it’s ebbs and flows instead of swimming in them.

If you find yourself drowning too, I want you to know that God’s love puts our work for love to rest.

...Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders. (Deuteronomy 33:12)

The real motivation behind all of our people pleasing is trying to prove we are worth it.

We find rest in the truth that at the cross Jesus proved we were worth it. We unlock that rest by believing it to be true.

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:10‬)

He doesn’t love us because of the cross, He went to the cross because of His fierce love for us.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Friend, you are loved and you are lovable. It’s proven by a fierce, unyielding love of a God who made the first move.
REFRESH 2018

Join us as we explore the fierce love of God together at the Northlands Women’s Conference, Refresh. We are almost sold out—register today!