God's love, in spite

There are so many in spites in our lives. We often are at our wit's end for one reason or another. Just a part of living in a fallen world in which even though we're in Jesus, we are not fully recovered.

This is where we need to remember God's love, in spite of all those things that hit us here and there. God's love is made clear to us in Jesus and in Jesus' reference to God as Abba or Father, as Scot McKnight points out in his excellent book, The Jesus Creed. Jesus chose Abba, the Aramaic word for father, and taught us to pray, "Our Father". He referred to God in prayer as "Father," except when on the cross he cried out, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" as he prayed the psalm.

There is the certainty of trouble in this life. But there is a certainty that nothing whatsoever can separate us from God's love for us in Jesus our Lord. We need to learn to rest better in that love and live our lives, steadily in that love, more and more. It is most independent of whatever circumstances we face.

And that Abba love is made known to us in Jesus, in his life, death, resurrection and ascension, as well as his coming return. In him we share in the victory to come, which actually begins now as the new creation breaks in both through us as God's new eschatological people and through the multifaceted good works we do in the Lord which usher in something of God's new creation in Jesus by the Spirit.

But in all of this, while God's love reaches everywhere towards his creation, we must not lose sight, as Scot reminds us, that it's a personal love, this Abba love to each one of us from God in Jesus. And as we learn to live in that love, we can end up helping others do the same. Truth is more caught than taught. So it must become a way of life with us, and more and more who we are in Jesus.

What would you like to share to help us in this?