Embraced

God’s love for us is foundational. It is rich and fulfilling, satisfying our longings deep down in our hearts. Satan, acting completely in character, seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our experience of God’s love in the innermost places of our souls. He leads us to look for love in all the wrong places and settle for cheap substitutes that are toxic to our well-being.

Activity or good behavior will not earn God’s love, nor by bad behavior can we lose it. God’s love comforts, heals, and soothes our fears. His love never grows cold. Our love receivers need to be tuned into him as he woos us closer to his unconditional love. We were created to enjoy his love, but many people don’t know that and it is all-too-easy to forget it.

                                                        -Sylvia Gunter

Do your love receivers need to be tuned in to the great, unconditional love of God? Mine certainly do. Like Sylvia suggests, I can too easily settle for cheap substitutes instead of spending the needed time in his word and prayer where he can speak in clear tones to my needy heart.

Let’s take just a moment and do that. I have been reading from the Gospel of Luke and was greatly ministered to by the story of Zacchaeus found in the 19^th chapter. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, one of the worst jobs a Jewish man could have. He actually worked for the occupying Roman army collecting taxes for the Empire. The hitch? He’d collect more taxes than needed from his fellow countryman and keep it for himself. Plus, he was the chief tax collector. Trust me; he was despised by the people for being a greedy traitor. I would imagine this occupation worked out pretty well for the short guy; the story in Luke tells us he was a wealthy man. Let’s face it, riches do bring a measure of satisfaction, but there were new yearnings in this person’s soul that money could not fill. A cheap substitute.

News apparently reached Zacchaeus that Jesus was passing though his town and he wanted to see him. The text tells us twice that he sought to get a glimpse of the Savior, but due to his short stature he had to climb a tree to see him. Now, this is an eager man to see the Lord! And guess what? Jesus stopped, spoke to him, and invited himself to Zaccheaus’s home! Jesus recognized spiritual hunger when he saw it. And then the unthinkable happened—salvation came to this sinner’s home! Jesus even said so. The evidence? He willingly gives back four times the amount of money stolen. God’s love and forgiveness changed this man forever.

Has God’s love had a radical effect on the way you act, the way you view yourself? Pause and ask him to make needed changes in your spirit so you, too, can live a life full-on for the Lord.

Embracing Him,
Barbara Francis

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