What It Means to Be Loved By God

I’ve been quiet in this space lately. Work has been consuming. Any spare time I have I devote to writing other things and writing here gets pushed farther and farther down the priority list. I don’t like it, but it’s the season I’m in right now.

I listened to a song the other day that stopped me in my tracks. It stopped me so hard and rattled me so deep, it got me to finally sit down here and write. Because I want you to hear it too. It’s called “Love You More” and it’s by one of my forever favorites, Nichole Nordeman. This song speaks the truth about God’s love for us better than any song I’ve ever heard.

After listening to this, all the things I’ve been shuffling and trying to keep together and stay in front of and on top of and be on time with, all of my work and my deadlines and my emails, they all sort of tumbled to the side and made way for this one truth: God loves me. Not only does He love me, but, as the song says, He’s “been loving me since time began.”

It reminds me of Psalm 139. “My frame was not hidden from you
 when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body;
 all the days ordained for me were written in your book
 before one of them came to be” (vv 15-16).

Not only does God love us, He loves us deeply and knows us fully.

And I wonder, how many of us operate and live our lives under the assurance of this truth? And if we don’t, and I am among the ones who don’t, how could things be different if we did? What would life look like? What would it feel like to take each step knowing that God loves us so deeply, and there is no such thing as a limit to that love, and we have not strayed too far this time because he gives second chances, third chances, fourth chances…

What would it feel like to live this way?

This question stopped me in my fast-moving tracks. I looked at the balls I was balancing and I realized living under the promise of God’s love would probably look like letting some of those balls drop to the floor. It would look like putting everything down because there is absolutely nothing greater or more important than the knowledge of God’s love. Receiving it has to be the first move of our day because without it, life is up to us. Without it, we do run out of chances. When we  don’t believe, at our core, that God loves us deeply, we walk around life afraid, regretful, uncertain, and suspicious and untrusting of our God.

His love—the kind that wove us together in the depths of the earth—protects us as much as it propels us. It shifts our priorities. It takes away the fear that we’re doing it wrong or that we will do it wrong. It allows us to trust in the goodness of God.

Take a minute today and ask yourself if you believe God loves you. Do you truly believe it? No matter what you have going on today, the answer to that question is really the only thing that matters.

 

(Yes, I wrote down all the lyrics for you because they are SO GOOD. Read them. Sit in them. Believe them.)

Love You More by Nichole Nordeman

You said go and sin no more

though my eyes could not meet yours

I started running the third time the rooster crowed

You threw a party just for me though I squandered everything

I was blinded in the middle of the road

I climbed up a tree to see you

Swallowed by the see to flee you

Sold you for a little silver and kiss

Killed a man to love his woman

Burned a bridge back to your garden

Hung beside you while you took your final breath

 

You’ve been loving me since time began

You’re behind my every second chance

 

I love you

I’m trying to love you more

I’m ready

Please help me

love you more

 

I keep thinking there’s a limit

I’m sure I must be getting near it

I’ve used up every pardon and regret

But you promise there is freedom

Gathered up my broken pieces

Scattered them as far as east is from the west

 

You’ve been loving me since time began

You’re behind my every second chance

 

I love you

I’m trying to love you

I’m ready

Please help me

love you more

 

For all the sand that fills the hour glass

Every breath between my first and last

I love you

I’m trying to love you more

I’m ready please help me love you more