LOVE ALWAYS

How often do you consider this...?

You Are (Always) Loved “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV). The enemy of our souls will relentlessly bombard us with thoughts and feelings of inadequacy, guilt, shame, condemnation, insufficiency, insecurity, fear, doubt, and rejection. But what Jeremiah 31:3 shows us is what I want to remind you of today: No matter what you have or haven’t said No matter what you have or haven’t thought No matter what you have or haven’t done No matter what you have or haven’t accomplished No matter what you have or haven’t planned No matter what ... God has and will always love you!   Taken from a post on First Things First by Christine Caine, February 17, 2022.  I remember when I first understood "Love Always" - I realized that every time The Bear left me a card as he went off to work at the nursery, it was signed "Love Always." That was a pretty special reminder of the love that we shared. Today's post from Christine brought back memories of those days. Today however my 'Love Always' comes from the One who promised that His love would be everlasting. Knowing that my Bear knows that love too makes it all the more perfect. Always...everlasting...forever...into eternity. Love Always.

 Have you ever marveled at the Lord’s presence? Has He ever shown Himself in such a way that you were so smitten with awe that you found yourself overcome with joy? Sometimes the noise of silence confounds my mind's ability to hear Him speak. This morning in the silence instead of hearing Him I saw His hand at work.

When I go to Him in prayer I remove my glasses. If I leave them on I am often distracted and then I lose my focus. This morning though despite laying my glasses aside I was constantly aware of a star in the sky. Putting my glasses on I realized that it was undoubtedly a planet – much brighter than anything else and actually the only star that I could see.

As I continued to lift up my words to the Lord more and more stars appeared. Giving thanks for His presence and acknowledging His promises I ended my time of prayer and looking up I saw an explosion of stars, big and small, bright, twinkling, filling the sky.

Psalm 147:4-5

He counts the number of the stars;

He gives names to all of them.

Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;

His understanding is infinite.

 Have you ever touched your feet to the floor in the morning and been completely overwhelmed with thoughts of your responsibilities of the day? That was me this morning. I have been dragging my feet and thinking ‘woe is me’ thoughts. Seemed as though everywhere I looked in the house, I saw something that I wanted to do but knew that I couldn’t because of the week’s responsibilities. “It’s not fair. I have too much to do” and “maybe it’s time to change, to walk away from some things.”

Yesterday, I ordered a new devotional. (I know I have a whole shelf of them but the title kind of spoke to me). A few minutes ago I discovered why. The book is titled Everyday In His Presence and the author is Charles Stanley. Today’s entry is titled “Your Indwelling Resource.” Today’s verse is Romans 15:13 which says ‘may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ The first line of the devotional says ‘whatever you must decide or achieve today may seem absolutely overwhelming.’

As the truths poured into my heart, I realized that the Lord knew my challenges. He knew my heartaches. He knew my quandaries. He knew me. As I read my spirit began to release and I felt renewed.

Here’s the bottom line: In His presence, you have victory over every challenge.