I want you as you are, not as you ought to be
Won’t you lay down your guard and come to Me
The shame that grips you now is crippling
It breaks My heart to see you suffering

‘Cause I am for you
I’m not against you

If you want to know
How far My love can go
Just how deep, just how wide
If you want to see
How much you mean to Me
Look at My hands, look at My side
If you could count the times I’d say you are forgiven
It’s more than the drops in the ocean

Don’t think you need to settle for a substitute
When I’m the only Love that changes you

Open your heart
It’s time that we start again
Open your heart
It’s time that we start again

Hawk Nelson
writer(s): Jon Steingard; Jason Ingram; Matt Bronlee

*   ~   ♥   ~   ✞   ~  ♥   ~   *

798,251,012,325,216,135,654,464,101,128,..
3.425 x 10^25

Are you able to read either of those numbers?  I’m not.  I have no concept of how many that is.  So, what do those numbers represent? They are the two most common answers to my Google search…”How many drops are in the ocean?”  And those are just best guesses based on scientific formulas.  Here is how the Bible answers that question:

The God of glory thunders— the Lord, above vast waters….
Psalm 29:3b HCSB

He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.
Psalm 33:7 NLT

Here is the ocean, vast and wide….
Psalm 104:25a NLT

Others went to sea in ships, conducting trade on the vast waters.
Psalm 107:23 HCSB

Vast, undefined, unfathomable—the drops in the ocean are beyond measure.  That is how much Jesus loves us.  Better yet, that is how many times He forgives us!  The Scriptures say:

..for you have rescued me from death and forgiven all my sins.
Isaiah 38:17b NLT

…for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Jeremiah 31:34b NASB

Truly and solemnly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men…
Mark 3:28a AMP

ALL our sins are forgiven.  Not some…not several…not just certain ones…but ALL!  They are remembered no more.  The HCSB version of Isaiah 38:17 says “You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.”  Out of sight and out of mind.

Think about it this way…

Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day
and each time turns again and asks forgiveness,
you must forgive.
Luke 17:4 NLT

Let’s pretend that is the standard Jesus uses toward us…. So 7 times a day for 365 days equals 2,555 times we are forgiven in 1 year.  I am 55; so now let’s multiply 2555 times 55.  That would equal 140,525 times I have been forgiven so far in my lifetime.  (And I know that estimate is WAY TOO LOW!)  I cannot imagine forgiving any one that many times.  Yet I am loved and forgiven so much more than that.

Ephesians 5:2 AMP tells us “Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.”  Romans 8:31 NLT reminds us “God is for us, who can ever be against us?”  1 Thessalonians 5:9 declares “For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out His anger on us.”

God is for us, not against us! He is:

– with us (Isaiah 8:10)
– bearing our burdens and carrying us each day (Psalm 68:19)
– with us; He is our leader (2 Chronicles 13:12)
– will fight for us (Nehemiah 4:20)

That’s how far His love can go for us.
That is how much we mean to Him.
That’s how deep, how wide His love is for us.
More than the drops in the ocean