Rabbi Schneider - God Has Always Loved You
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm number 103. There's so much in Psalm 103. I can't cover it all in one short devotional. So I want to highlight today for us verses eight and ten. Listen to the Word of God. "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities".
Aren't you thankful that the Lord has been merciful to you? And rather than rewarding you according to your sin, He's shown grace to you that He's working with you, helping you to overcome, that He's been slow to anger and patient. I mean, it's unbelievable what God has done for us. He could have just as easily judged us. He could have just as easily given us a tit for a tat. But instead, He has compassion on us and He understands why we are the way we are. He understands that we're created from the dust. He's compassion.
The Scripture says, God knows we were created from the dust. He has empathy for us, compassion for us. And not only that, He understands the brokenness that we've come from, the brokenness in our families and the betrayals that we've experienced. He loves us and so when we respond to something wrongly because of the fact that we were born into a broken, fallen world, that we came, some of us, out of dysfunctional families, that we've been betrayed, that we've been scarred. There's areas in our life that are not yet made whole. And because of that, we don't always respond to others correctly. Rather than judging us immediately for our wrongful response sometimes, God sees past that and He loves us.
The Bible says Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. God loved you and me, listen, this is important, before we came to Jesus. Think about that. Sometimes we get confused. We come to Jesus, and then if we mess up, if we sin, we wonder if God loves us. But God sent Jesus to die for you and I before we came to Jesus. And so I want you to be convinced God loves you today. Listen again. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and He does not or He has not rewarded us according to our sin.
I want you to surrender your heart to believe and trust in God's love for you. This doesn't give us a license to sin. On the contrary, it should motivate us not to sin because He loves us and He's got a call on our lives. Our love for God is what keeps us walking in fidelity with Him. And when we're fully convinced that He loves us, we're going to fully love Him back and cease from sinning. And of course, this is a process. We don't go from being a zero to being a hero in a second. We overcome every single day, but leave with this today.
The nature of God is compassion and love. And He chose you in His Son even before you were born. Open up your heart to trust Him. Know He loves you even when you feel separated from Him or feel like you're drifting. Know that His love for you is unfailing. This will not make you more prone to sin, rather it will cause you to become more in love with Him and cause you to live a life that's even more devoted. God loves you. Be blessed in Jesus name, in Yeshua's name.