Returning to my First Love

It’s looking like this will be a theme in my life and blog posts for a while.  I’m in a real season of refreshment, and it’s amazing.  I can already see, too, that this refreshment is just the beginning.  The things God is reminding me of right now are things that He wants for everyone.  I hope you are encouraged by this.

People that know me pretty well know that I am an emotional and sensitive guy, and that has been compounded over the last couple of weeks as God’s been reminding me in very real ways how important I am to Him.  It’s a wonderful time.  I’m filled with so much joy, and often tears, as I go through the day and God brings to my mind truths that I’ve known for so long.  During this time, though, He’s reminding me of these truths and pressing them past my mind and deep into my heart.

My favorite verse for a long time has been John 17:3.  This is when Jesus is praying, and He says:

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

God did not save me out of my sin to just change my destination when I die.  I’m not meant to just do all of these religious duties throughout life in hopes that one day I will escape a fiery judgment and have eternal pleasure in Heaven.

No!  That’s falling way too short of the goodness of God.  True eternal life is something that I have now!  It is the ability to personally know the one true God.  I don’t even understand this.  How is this possible?  He’s so far above and beyond me, that there’s no logical way that I can even approach me.  I mean, who am I out of the more than 6 billion people on this planet?

But it’s true.  It’s all over the Bible.  God is crazy about me!

As I mentioned in my last post, music has played a huge role in this, too.  The lyrics that have really kept pushing this revelation along have been from “Scenes” by Charlie Hall:

I see You in every scene
I bet You are thinking of me
I have such a short memory
Still You keep reminding me of You

That is pretty much the theme of my life right now.  God is constantly reminding me that He is thinking about me.  That sounds so simple, right?  I mean, big deal.  Someone’s thinking about me.  But when it’s the God of the universe, it is a big deal!

I’m being reminded of and being shown lots of new verses about this.  Here’s just a sample:

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

Psalm 139:17-18

The great part about all of this is that it is not just for me.  I knew many people back in the US that were just worn out from life and felt like God was so distant from them.  I know I’ve felt like that countless times.  What amazing hope it gives me to know that He is always thinking about me.  Even when I feel rejected, alone, and forgotten, God is thinking of me.

Wow, let that sink in.  I think we could all use a reminder of this 🙂

There’s so much more that I’m processing right now.  Surely more to come…

2 thoughts on “Returning to my First Love

  1. chad

    I was listening to a guy talk the other day who differentiated the zoe and the bios greek words. They both translate to life in English but they mean far different things. As you may think, bios life is in regards to physical life energy that is possessed by all animal and plant life, etc. However, zoe life is the life of God, the energy of the Spirit of God. Most verses that talk about the life of God like Jn 4(samaritan woman), Jn 3.16 all refer to the ZOE life of God. Not an end destination but the energy and spirit of His life.

    Thought that was cool and contributed to the conversation!
    blessings bro.

    Reply
  2. casey

    Justin, I love reading your posts. You are such an inspiration!
    I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you and I love you!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *