resurrection – Uplift

This image may be difficult for you to look at. I completely understand the deep desire to turn away. You might actually feel a little angry at me for sharing it. You might even disagree but I started this blog to share what is true to me. This is unconditional love in a picture. It’s a image created by human hands based upon scripture and the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Oftentimes this image has been used along with others to manipulate others coming to Jesus. I want you to look at this image and behold his unconditional love for you. I want you to behold his sacrifice for your freedom. That means you do not have to live in bondage to anything. Jesus did not die to impress you. Jesus did not die to manipulate you but he died to offer you unconditional love. Did you know that you and every human that ever existed was the joy that was set before him as he endured the cross. I believe that Jesus stayed on the cross because our life was that important to him. I believe our creation mattered that much to him.

It was his love that was the driving force behind his unconditional sacrifice. I cannot think of any greater love than this. The beauty of this love is, you did not do anything to earn it and you cannot do anything to stop it. The love of Jesus reaches us no matter the place, no matter the person, no matter the circumstances or situation, the love of Jesus still reaches us. The thing is though, it is there but you have to allow yourself to let it in. When we have been hurt we tend to struggle with letting ourselves experience the fullness of Jesus love for us. When we have lived a life that we feel ashamed of, we struggle with believing that Jesus or anyone else could truly love us. See, that’s the thing, his love has no conditions. There are no auditions to receive his love. The love of Jesus just is. I’m so grateful he is not looking at all of our sins or looking at all the countless times we have rejected his love, none of that matters to him. Jesus just wants to love you into a real relationship with him. I’m thinking about when I first began to date my husband, the more I talked to him, the more I got to know him, the more I loved him. The more I spent time with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him. The more we fell in love with one another, the more we realized that we wanted to spend our lives together and that led to the covenant of marriage. This is exactly how it feels with the love of Jesus. Will you step into his love this Resurrection season?

So, in my closing I want to share with you how I came to believe in his love for me. I struggled with believing Jesus truly loved me for the greater part of my younger life. I thought that things that happened to me beyond my control left a stain on me. I thought all Jesus saw when he looked at me was that dirty stain and he moved me into the category of people he could no longer love. I thought if I went to church enough, read my Bible enough and did all the right things that I could finally feel his love. Over 20 years ago, I got to go to a huge women’s conference. Everything that happened that weekend was so Jesus could finally help me understand that he has always loved me. From every song and every word spoken that weekend it felt like all the lies about his love for me began to wash away. Even a hotel situation where we had booked rooms and they upgraded us to another hotel that was a five star hotel. I felt like a princess and all along Jesus was in the background pulling all the strings to help me step into his unconditional love. I had been living for Jesus but not living through Jesus. I walked down the isle and gave him my heart but I would not allow his love in because I had believed the lie that I was stained. That night we went to a play and I cried all throughout that play. I had been crying all day as I began to realize Jesus always loved me. I was created because of his love. I remember leaving that play with all those people and I stepped outside and it was raining. As we waited for them to bring the van for us, I began to lift my hands in worship. On that night his love overwhelmed me. I stepped into the rain and began to just rejoice, it didn’t feel like rain, it felt like showers of his love pouring over me. The love I felt that night, I have experienced over and over. I finally stopped believing the lie and started embracing the truth of his love for me. I’ve never struggled with his love for me again. Now the devil has tried to bring it up and tried telling me those lies again and because of the overwhelming love of Jesus I’ve put those lies right back on him💚.

Tag: resurrection

Unconditional