Oh, how He loves us! - by Melissa

I wanted to share a revelation with you that I got during worship at church yesterday. We were singing a song written by one of the worship leaders and the words went, "All man's empty promises lie broken at your feet, but You have never broken one." And another part of the song was, "You open up your heart time and time and time again."

It just hit me how much the Lord loves us, weak little humans. We fail Him over and over and yet He still seeks after us. The thing that really got me was how in human relationships once we have been hurt or wronged time and again by another human we close our heart to that person. However, with the Lord, He continues to seek after us even after we wrong Him time and time and time again.

Then, after worship, the sermon was titled Understanding How God Feels About People: 7 Principles. It was a teaching I definitely needed to hear because earlier in the week I had a conversation with a friend about this topic and I failed to represent the truth about it to her. I failed miserably.

I was telling her about how there are "things" in our lives that don't really draw us closer to God. And I really just wanted to encourage her to continue to go deeper and deeper into the heart of God. I felt if I said it's ok to do those "things," she would become comfortable where she was with the Lord and not think she was in need. So, I made it seem like those "things" were sins.

The teaching Sunday was so amazing because it encourages believers to go deeper with the Lord without making them feel condemned. I really recommend printing out the notes and meditating on them.

The foundational premise was: spiritual immaturity is not rebellion. For example: when we set our intention to obey the Lord in a certain area(i.e. gossiping or lust). If we fail, we quickly repent, coming back into agreement with the Lord's leadership over our lives. When we attain obedience in that certain area, God gives us more grace and He raises the standard. Therefore, "We are always in the gap." The Lord continues to disciple us until we are holy as He is holy.

--- This is how I should be encouraging other believers out of apathy and into more of Jesus!

The seven principles of the teaching were:

1)God loves and blesses unbelievers.

2)God enjoys sincere yet immature believers.

3)God's love is not the same as His full approval.

4)God's discipline is not the same as His rejection of us.

5)God is grieved over the persistent sin of His people.

6)Spiritual disciplines do not earn us God's favor.

7)Maturity allows us to receive more (not be loved more).

It was such a rich teaching, I hope it encourages you in a deeper relationship with God.