Moving!!!

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Love: Not a Gift?

"God loves us the way we are and nothing we do can possibly change that. But God loves us too much to let us stay the way we are now."

I think that my life has come down to experiencing amazingly truthful quotes throughout the day. No matter when, my mind is constantly being preoccupied by something extraordinarily easy to say but surprisingly difficult to comprehend. It has gotten to the point that when I sit down to talk to someone, I sometimes ask them about one amazing thing they've had happen that day.

Leading into this quote which I heard during my Friday night fellowship message, was the idea of moving forward. It was about how no matter how many times we make a mistake, God will, without question, love us unconditionally. Yet, God loves us so much that he refuses to leave us in the same sorry state that we came in.

I think that a lot of us are trying to move forward and maybe even try to make that initial dent into a seemingly imprenetrable "wall" that inhibits us to make a conscious push forward. In other words, there are things that many of us recognize as hinderances but aren't motivated enough to deal with it. I find this especially true with myself. If I asked myself what sort of things I want to get rid of, I would say something like bad grades, procrastination, and apathy. While I am extremely conscious of these things (especially bad grades), I tend to fall back into them, despite having tried to chip away at the blocks, feeling pathetic for having failed.

Knowing that Jesus is always there for me is definitely consoling. Looking back at the quote, it's easy to look at it as some sort of conslence. Yes, God will love you no matter how pathetic you are. Yes God won't disown you if you fail that next midterm. Yes, God won't turn away when you procrastinated. Yes, God will still embrace you even you are apathetic. But this is not what God will only do. God's love is active. He won't just let you stay stagnant.

The consoling stereotype that we have placed on God's love and the idea that we do nothing to receive that love is not just too ingrained, it is incomplete. God is constantly trying to lead us toward him. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you see it, we don't just receive God's love. God's love is not a present in the sense of some kind of gift for us to have our way with. God's love is more of a command and it's your choice whether you want to execute it or not. Accepting it will change you, you aren't going to be the same. There is no in between. When we look ourselves in the mirror, we won't look the same after receiving the gift. It isn't a gift that you can accept and just leave unwrapped on your bookshelf.

Have you executed God's love?

Relief at Four

All I can possibly say is that only God could have helped pull this one off for me. He is too good, all the time.

No I'm not going to say what because that's not important. What is important is how faithful He is.