Redeeming Love

Good morn-ting! I was so excited about today's post after receiving so many encouraging messages yesterday. So thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your sweet compliments! You should probably expect a post every day this week. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve last night, too giddy and anxious about writing this morning I could not go to sleep! I did not even know what I would talk about today, about one million different ideas were running through my head, but I finally caught one of the little suckers...

Redeeming love, it is such an incredible thing! It is probably one of my favorite qualities of God, right next to Grace. That leads me to my story...

Three years ago I went through one of the hardest times in my life. No, I was not dying but I felt like it. I felt like the cards that had been dealt were not fair and some dreams I had for my future would not be possible anymore. I had grown up in a christian home, with what I thought was a strong faith and this is how God repays me? I questioned God, A LOT. Why me when I had made all the 'right' choices? I chose at that moment to run from God. I started living the life I wanted to live because why does it matter anyway? God had already given me an unlucky hand, right? Instead of realizing all the many blessings in my beautifully broken life I chose to take the negative and run with that. So I made some pretty foolish mistakes along the way and then let the devil convince me that all my bad choices were unforgivable. I was pretty much saying, "Thanks Jesus for your sacrifice, but it's not good enough for me". I tried many times to get back on the right path, but when satan would tell me I was unworthy I would back to making the same choices.

Then I read the book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers that a dear friend had given me to read. If you have not read the book, you should. It is about this young man and woman's rocky relationship. The young woman finds no worth in herself and continues to make the exact same mistake throughout the marriage. But every single time her husband forgives her, and trust me these are some pretty bad choices that she is making. I caught myself getting so angry with the husband, "Leave her!" I thought "She is not worthy of a husband like you!". He never does leave her though, he even runs after her at times. I kept thinking geez, how can anyone love someone that much? It is simply unredeemable. And the young woman in the book agreed with me, she could not understand how she would ever be worthy of his presence....starting to sound familiar? I am not going to give away the ending just in case some of you have not read it but what I have told you should get my point across.

I realized that the wife was me, and the husband is God. I was embarassed to find her so unforgivable, when I am really just like her. I catch myself making the same mistakes...and what if God thought me unredeemable. Well, there is good news, he doesn't!  God loves us so much, even when we continue to make the same silly mistakes over and over again! Even though we try to run he never gives up on us. That no matter how broken we believe we are, he is there to hold all the pieces and wrap us close in his arms. Pretty good stuff, right?

Jeremiah 31:3 "...I have loved you with an everlasting love.."

Song of the day
"You Never Let Go" Matt Redman

Here is the link to the book--Please, please, please read it!
Redeeming Love- Francine Rivers