Most mornings I wake up before the sun is up, which gives me the privilege of witnessing the glory of the sunrise! Every time I see it coming up looking like a red ball of fire, I think/hear “His love burns for me”. That thought is like a blanket to my heart. His love DOES burn for me.
When my day begins with recognizing the magnitude of His affection for me, it really gives me a strong foundation to walk out the day with love in my heart for others, and confidence in whatever I do because it’s from a foundation of love. Our whole lives can be built around the absolute knowledge of His affection for us. We can actually find rest in knowing His love better, and it leads us to love Him better because, the strangely wonderful thing about God, is that He gives us the love we have….even our love toward Him. We love because He first loved us! I John 4:19
How humbling and awe inspiring is it to realize that the amount of love we have toward the Father actually comes from Him first loving us?! Is it just me, or is that not really cool?
I know that to some, this may sound way too basic, but what I’ve discovered in my journey with Abba is that it’s all basic. Meaning, our lives and walk with Him could be so much easier than we make it because He’s already done it all! He chose us. He loved us first. He forgave us. He died for us to be close to Him. He walked the earth as a man. He knows. He’s done all the heavy lifting and only asks that we rest in Him and the wonder of His love.
We are the ones who try to work ourselves into a frenzy to become worthy enough for Him…..But we don’t need to be “worthy”, He already chose us. He already died. He made the decision before we were even born to love us unconditionally and no amount of work could enhance or change that. In fact, the times I feel His love most, are the times that I let go and stop trying and am still and surrender to feeling loved.
That’s it! Our biggest challenge is to surrender to letting Him near our hearts to fully love us. Right now, I see that some of you prickle at the thought of letting Him or anyone, for that matter, come close to you. To let anyone hug you or hold you or whisper words of love into your ear. Some of you have been so wounded or misinformed about Him that you actually (without realizing it) brush away His hand of affection when it tries to come and draw you near. If that’s you, then I challenge you today. I challenge you to take time in a quiet place…I see you sitting on the floor and then reaching out your arms to Heaven, as a child reaches up to be held by a father. Our Father in Heaven wants to respond to you. He’s waiting for the invitation to respond to you. Ask Him, “Daddy, will you hold me?” I see His arms reaching out for you now. Oh, how He’s longed to hear those words. No one could measure the height or depth or width of His love for you! What delight He took in creating you in the secret place. What delight He has taken watching you grow into the person you are today, but He has longed for intimacy with you. If you will, then ask Him to show you what true intimacy looks like. I have asked this question, and it began the greatest journey into the heart of Love that I could’ve ever imagined.
Will you start that journey today?
Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love or God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:1-18
365 Days in the Presence 