{"id":17554,"date":"2014-02-04T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T05:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=17554"},"modified":"2016-01-04T14:52:45","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T19:52:45","slug":"christlife-seventeen-desired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/04\/christlife-seventeen-desired\/","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTLife — Seventeen: Desired"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cl<\/a><\/p>\n

We have been called and chosen. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Just one reason\u2014Almighty God desired to love us. \u00a0Paul says that God has set His love on those whom He loves from all eternity (Ephesians 1:4). \u00a0If you are a child of God, there has never been a time when God did not know you and did not love you. \u00a0Before you were even born He had determined to set His love on you. \u00a0He chose us not because we were love-able; but we become love-able because He chose us and desired us.<\/p>\n

In this is love: not that we loved God,
\nbut that He loved us<\/em><\/strong>
\nand sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.
\n1 John 4:10<\/p>\n

You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
\nVery rarely will anyone die for a righteous person,
\nthough for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
\nBut God demonstrates His own love<\/em> <\/strong>for us in this:
\nWhile we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
\nRomans 5:6-8<\/p>\n

From the foundations of time, Sovereign Almighty God has desired His children. And He made a way\u2014a very, very hard way\u2014for sinful, not love-able people to be brought to His Holy Self. \u00a0And that was through the sacrifice and death of His Son, Jesus Christ. \u00a0And then through the centuries leading up to the perfect time when Jesus would come to the earth to show this incredible love, at sporadic times there were a few people who recognized this love that God had for mankind. David the psalmist was one. \u00a0He wrote many, many times about the reality of God\u2019s love for himself.<\/p>\n

And even Job, through all his worryings and complainings and the very difficult times he had, I believe he knew and was convinced of God\u2019s love for man. Listen…<\/p>\n

What is man that you make so much of him and that You set Your heart on him<\/strong><\/em>,
\nand visit him every morning…?
\nJob 7:17 and 18<\/p>\n

God spoke through any number of the prophets declaring to the people He was drawing to Himself of His love, grace, and mercy and His desire for mankind.<\/p>\n

Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works,
\nbut according to His own purpose and grace
\nwhich was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity<\/em><\/strong>,
\n2 Timothy 1:9<\/p>\n

I have loved you with an everlasting love<\/em><\/strong>; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
\nJeremiah 31:3<\/p>\n

Particularly, through the life of one prophet, Hosea, God showed what the depth of His love looked like…right alongside the depravity of the idolatry and whoredom of His people. \u00a0The whole book of Hosea illuminates this truth but in particular I love one verse:<\/p>\n

I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love<\/em><\/strong>,
\nand I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
\nand I bent down to them and fed them.
\nHosea 11:4<\/p>\n

And then Jesus came! And showed clearly the depth of God\u2019s love for mankind. He lived love to the nth degree always being the epitome of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

Now here is Truth (I know it is so because it is in God\u2019s Word)…truth hard to comprehend but true nonetheless!<\/p>\n

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
\nnor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
\nnor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God,<\/em><\/strong>
\nwhich is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
\nRomans 8:38-39<\/p>\n

Such love is beyond our ability to grasp with our minds, but it is not beyond our ability to experience with our hearts. Only through the power and influence of the Holy Spirit are we able to do so!<\/p>\n

…And that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
\nmay be able to comprehend with all the saints
\nwhat is the breadth and length and height and depth,<\/em><\/strong>
\n and to know the love of Christ<\/em> <\/strong>which surpasses knowledge,
\nthat you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
\nEphesians 3:17-19<\/p>\n

Truly not feasible by our own doing, our own efforts, our own works. BUT, because God tells us so through Paul\u2019s encouragement to the church at Ephesus, we KNOW it to be true! And this is the awesome Truth of God\u2019s desiring us\u2014it is not based on you or me but completely<\/strong><\/em> on Him!<\/p>\n

May I share something with you? \u00a0At the very beginning of today\u2019s chapter, Mrs. Myers asks her readers to \u201cAllow the Lord to fully convince your heart that He desires you.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0I had an extremely difficult time taking that step. \u00a0You see, on any given day, I have not been convinced that Almighty God desired me. \u00a0Let alone ask Him to ‘fully convince my heart’ of that fact. \u00a0But…today I did ask. \u00a0And He is doing so!!! \u00a0Oh, I have a <prior> lifetime of being fully convinced that perhaps God might desire everyone else but not me. \u00a0But that is not too much for our Father to deal with! \u00a0For little me, Coleen Ann Brigit McElroy Hayden, \u201cI am <becoming> convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate <me> from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus <my> Lord.\u201d \u00a0How about you?<\/p>\n

\u2665\u00a0 \u2665\u00a0 \u2665\u00a0 \u2665\u00a0 \u2665<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

God loves you<\/strong>!\u00a0\u00a0\u2665<\/span> \u00a0<\/strong>(Don\u2019t\u00a0ever<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>forget that!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been called and chosen. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Just one reason\u2014Almighty God desired to love us. \u00a0Paul says that God has set His love on those whom He loves from all eternity (Ephesians 1:4). \u00a0If you are a child of God, there has never been a time when God did not know you and did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":17560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5040],"tags":[5325,5327,5044,235,5333,5329,1287,425,5330,5328,552,5326,5332,913,5024,5068,5334,5331],"class_list":["post-17554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christlife-bible-study","tag-1-john-410","tag-2-timothy-19","tag-christlife","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-comprehending-the-love-of-christ","tag-ephesians-317-19","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-desired-us","tag-hosea-114","tag-jeremiah-313","tag-job-717-18","tag-nothing-can-separate-us-from-gods-love","tag-romans-56-8","tag-romans-838-39","tag-ruth-myers","tag-the-breadth-and-length-and-height-and-depth-and-to-know-the-love-of-christ","tag-we-are-desired-by-god","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cl-desired.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4z8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17554"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17566,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554\/revisions\/17566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}