GUESS WHO LOVES YOU

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  (Philippians 2:5-7 NKJV)

The Lord Jesus stripped Himself of everything except love, that He might more readily meet each human soul on its own level. Being in the form of God, and equal with God, He emptied Himself, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, for our sakes. He stripped Himself of all that He might give to us raiment’s of white instead of the fading fig leaves of apologies and excuse. He descended so low as to put His everlasting arms beneath the most hapless and hopeless. He desired to get so low, that none could get lower. He was set on proclaiming His gospel (good news)  so that even the dying thief might enter paradise, and that not one prodigal in all the human family should think that he had sunk too low or gone so far as to be excluded from the hope of salvation. "He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him."

Surely it is inexcusable that any soul of man should evade the love of God, when the Son of His Love has made so great an effort to acquaint us, not only with its height and breadth and length, but with its depth. Why are we so cold, so unmoved, and so inert? The apostle speaks of the love of Christ constraining him, of the love of God shed abroad within us and flooding our heart. How is it that, with God's love so near, so close, so easily within our reach, we are so apathetic and irresponsive?

The cure is, in part, the consciousness that God's love is all around us, which we cultivate by meditation. "Thy omnipotence," says St. Augustine, "is not remote from us even when we are remote from Thee"; and we can say the same thing about His love. Even when we feel cold and distant, we are overwhelmed by God's love behind and before, and His grace is overshadowing us with infinite tenderness. Don’t try to kindle love by thinking of the cross as far away back in the past, but by thinking and meditating on Christ's love as being as tender and real as when He said to His mother, “Behold thy son," and to John, " Behold thy mother."

Jesus knows the need of our heart, and is even now close at hand to lead us by the Holy Spirit into the realization of His love. Let’s open our nature to the blessed comforter, and He will not be slack in His response. "The fruit of the Spirit is love."  Is that the Spirit you possess?

PRAYER

May Your Holy Spirit so fill my heart with the consciousness of the love of Christ my Lord, that there may be no room in my life for anything inconsistent with His love. In His Name I ask it, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #49:
I will bless you in times of mourning with My comfort.

Matthew 5:4 (WEB)
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.