Persistent Love

pastor2022 · Moderator Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 690

Persistent Love
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you
with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness
I have drawn you."

Jeremiah 31:3

Because He Loves us with a persistent love, God will not give up on us without having pursued us to the very end. If we think that He invites us to accept His rule but is indifferent as to whether we do that or not, then we have read little of what the Scriptures say of His love. We never refuse our God without breaking His heart, and in the end, that is what sin always comes down to: a refusal to accept God's love. When we say no to Him, we are stubbornly saying no to the better things that His love is longing to give us. We are running away from our greatest good!

Mark it well, however: Although it is a long time, it is not forever that God will pursue us with His love. The patience of God is greater than any mortal patience, but eventually it will come to an end. Having been given the freedom of our will, we may continue to refuse Him for a while. Yet if we do so long enough, the time will come when the pursuit is over and the only thing left is awesome judgment. Weeping over Jerusalem, Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Matthew 23:37-39).

If we still live, however, then God still pursues us because we mean so much to Him. The "Hound of Heaven" will not easily be thrown off our trail. And those who have finally relented and let themselves be overtaken by His love find that their joy is tinged by only one real regret, and that is that they did not let themselves be loved sooner. Francis Thompson, in his remarkable poem, has well guessed what our Lord will say at last to those who have found Him: "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, / I am He whom thou seekest! / Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me."

atoz · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:48 am Post subject: Re: Persistent Love

pastor2022 · Moderator Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 690

atoz...thanks for the kind and loving words. I agree that God's love is limitless beyond anything that we can measure. I guess where I failed in my words was that some do keep rejecting God's love in their lives even when God does keep calling them. I have seen it in my own experience in the ministry and in my own family. I do know of God's call upon our lives but I also recognize and believe that as it says in Genesis 6:3 (GW) Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not struggle with humans forever, because they are flesh and blood. They will live 120 years" there can come a time when God will say enough. When is that time? I don't know or would ever say. Is it death humanly speaking or at some point when a person so hardens their heart? I just don't know.

I know that (I think?) that you believe in US. I don't, but that's not what I was trying to get across in this post. I was trying to get across that God's love is persistent and unfathomable. Dear Atoz, you are, to me, a friend and I have the utmost respect and love for you. May God's richest blessings be upon you.

atoz · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:21 pm Post subject:

pastor2022 · Moderator Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 690

Thanks for explaining how and what you believe more clearly to me. I really don't think we're that far apart! I don't HATE anyone or anything (except liver and okra! Laughing

of course, you would say that to hate is to love and to love is to hate Very Happy

). I have counseled couples before in the matter of divorce and have had one spouse say something like, "Well, I don't love him/her anymore" or "I fell out of love with him/her." I tell them that Jesus said we were to love our enemies and if they can't love the other person as their spouse/helpmeet any longer then they are to start loving them as their enemy just as Jesus said to do with all things Jesus said was to accompany such love. When I can get them to do that, I am able to help them salvage their marriage and go on to have a stronger marriage. I have learned over the years that people don't "fall out of love," they just place their love elsewhere.

Thank you for your words and your friendship. God's grace and mercy be abundant to you.

atoz · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:04 pm Post subject:

pastor2022 · Moderator Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 690

You have hit on something that I have dealt with for many years in my counseling and pastoral ministry. The perceived contradiction of loving oneself and hating oneself that people have has caused numerous problems for so many people. One basic problem that so many people has is that they are conditioned to conditional love and acceptance. That is, they have, rightly and wrongly, perceived love and acceptance as being conditional upon performance. So, they have transferred that perception to themselves, others and ultimately to God. For "self-love" not to be narcissitic or destructive to self or others, it must be shown how to be truly love that is expressed not only to self but to others and to God. Too often, I find people who have "low self-esteem" striving to "prove" themselves to others, to God and to themselves for approval and love and acceptance. Now it's true, God is in the business of changing us into His image and perfecting us in the image of His dear Son. With that said, He accepts us and loves us just as we are. If He does, then we should love ourselves and others and Him with the same unconditional love and acceptance.

Can you only imagine the fundamental change that could occur if we could grasp this most foundational truth of God's unchanging, unconditional love and acceptance? That we don't have to "perform" a certain way for God to accept us or love us?

1 John 4:10 (KJV) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God bless.

atoz · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:42 am Post subject: