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You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.—1 Peter 2:91
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Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.—Ephesians 1:4–62
Engulfed in love
If you were to stand before Me in spirit, you would be so engulfed and overwhelmed by My love, that all the hurts and the pain and the misunderstandings of the past and the present would completely vanish! So great is My love for you that there is no room for sorrow or condemnation. If you were standing before Me in spirit, you would feel only total acceptance and total love, because you would know that all is forgiven. There is no fear in Me. I wash away all fear, and there is no fear in My love.
Trust Me that My love for you is no less while your spirit resides within your body on earth than when you shall arrive here and stand before Me. You are just as much forgiven and there is nothing held against you. You are My beloved.
So find peace and rest and comfort in My love.
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I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.—Jeremiah 31:33
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I have loved you with an everlasting love. Before time began, I knew you. For years you swam around in a sea of meaninglessness, searching for love, hoping for hope. All that time I was pursuing you, aching to embrace you in My compassionate arms.
When the time was right, I revealed Myself to you. I lifted you out of that sea of despair and set you down on a firm foundation. Sometimes you felt naked—exposed to the revealing light of My presence. I wrapped an ermine robe around you: My robe of righteousness. I sang you a love song, whose beginning and end are veiled in eternity. I infused meaning into your mind and harmony into your heart. Join Me in singing My song. Together we will draw others out of darkness into My marvelous light.4
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I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.—Isaiah 61:105
Untarnishable love
Nothing will break the tie of love that I have for you. Nothing can come between us. Nothing can separate Me from you, for My love is stronger than anything. No floods can quench it, no doubts can remove it, nothing can tarnish it, for it stands stronger than any of these.
As you seek for and discover My love, as you swim in My love and revel in the ecstasy and the joy that I would give you, you will understand why the martyrs were even able to die for this love. It was greater to them than any trial or any persecution or any problem. It was so strong that even at the moment when they could not feel it, they knew it. It was stronger than any circumstance or any trial. For these pass away, but My love will not pass away.
If you seek Me with all your heart you will find Me, for I would be found of you, and I would draw you unto Me. As you seek Me in the Word, you will find Me, for I will be found of you.
My cup overflows6
In the day of Pentecost I poured forth My Spirit and the manifestation of tongues and prophecy, but “the greatest of these is love.”7 This is a greater gift than the others. I also pour forth My other gifts—of healing, of prophecy, and of tongues—but My gift of love is the greatest of all gifts!
This is a gift that I pour forth as billows of waters and as the waves of the sea! And you can exercise these gifts as you step out upon the waters by faith and walk in My love, speaking words of love and performing acts of love. My love will carry you forth and hold you up even in the midst of gross darkness and tribulation. My love will hold and keep you.
My love has no limit. For I am love and I cannot be contained. And I do pour forth; I break forth on the right hand and on the left. You come to Me with your cup, but I would open channels unto you, continuous channels of My love. If you look to Me, and seek Me first, and put Me first, and draw nigh to Me with your whole heart, you will overflow with My love. Your cup will not be empty, but will overflow! Your cup will run over continually. You will have not your own measly store, but the bountiful, immeasurable store of My love to share with others, to pour forth, to give. And as you give, it shall be given unto you. For the waters that you pour forth, I shall flood you with more, for there is no limit to Me or My love.
As an only child
I love all of My children equally. Each one is precious to Me, and I love each one as if he or she were the only one. Each one is as an only child to Me. This is how I pour forth My love and attention and affection and supply and protection to each one, as to an only child.
I am devoted to each of My children with unending faithfulness, as a mother is to her only child. She faithfully watches over him and cares for him, attends to his education, the supply of his needs, and his desire for love and encouragement and instruction. She watches her only child with great admiration and pride, and finds tremendous joy as he grows and matures and becomes the fulfillment of her dreams. As this mother loves her only child, so do I love each one of My children as an only child, with much love and devotion and attention.
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All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.—John 17:10, 13, 17, 22–238
Originally published in 1997, unless otherwise indicated. Adapted and republished February 2014. Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Daniel Sozzi.
1 NIV.
2 NLT.
3 NIV.
4 Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
5 ESV.
6 Psalm 23:5.
7 1 Corinthians 13:13.
8 NLT.
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