God always takes the first step.
- Before we ever loved God, he loved us.
- Before we ever invited him into our lives, he extended an invitation to us.
We believe in God as the Great Initiator.
- There is nothing more fundamental to our faith than the belief that God is reaching out to us in love.
- Nothing else brings more meaning to human existence than the fact that our Creator is committed to initiating relationship with us.
Everything you do for God will be the overflow of intimacy with God.
- We need to recall these moments in our lives when God’s personal love became real for us.
- And if we don’t feel we’ve ever experienced this kind of affirmation from God, we need to ask God for our own evidence of his personal love.
- He is more than eager to answer this kind of request.
The love of God is at work all around us.
- Of course, from our human perspective, we don’t always see all of what God is doing on our behalf.
- When he is actively drawing us to himself, we can be quite unaware of it.
- When he was choosing us, we didn’t know about it.
- When he was softening our hearts toward him, we didn’t understand what was happening within us.
- This is why, in many cases, we talk about how we found God rather than how God found us.
- But when we come to faith and accept the perspective of the Scriptures, we learn to believe that God’s action comes prior to our action.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).
- When we are personally awakened by God’s loving action toward us, we realize that our role in the relationship is one of response.
- God’s great love sets us free to respond.
- It invites a reply.
- God speaks; we answer.
- He acts; we react.
This understanding of God as the Initiator helps us to maintain a God-centered perspective on our lives of faith. It saves us from thinking that it’s all up to us.
- “Love comes from God. God is love.”
- We needed God to make a move toward us. In Jesus, he did.
- The apostle Paul says that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:19)
- Although God is not ignorant of your failures, he does not focus on them.
Rest in God’s love.
- So often we cause ourselves to come under a heaviness that leads to depression and disillusionment because we are so inwardly focused and lose sight of his unconditional love for us.
- God initiates us to experience a love without limits, a love that is not based on what we do.
Re-source: Receptive
able or willing to receive something, especially signals or stimuli
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. He loves us right now!
- Nothing we do can make God love us more.
- Nothing we do can make God love us less.
Woman at the well. Despite a variety of reason why Jesus shouldn’t interact with this woman, he communicates a deep and personal love for her, a love that transforms her.
- Jesus boldly breaks down barriers of race, religion, sex, and reputation and calls this woman to a life of meaning and wholeness.
- Even though Jesus knows her personal flaws and frailty, he accepts her and wins her heart.
- And it is this love that inspires here and finally commissions her to invite others to meet this man and to experience his love.
John (5:1-15, MSG) Man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus comes to this man to bless him, to meet his need.
- When all hope is gone and there seems to be no other way, Jesus appears on the scene.
- He walks into our lives in the same way.
- He comes to heal and to make whole.
We need to understand that God desires to interact with each one of us in this kind of intensely personal way.
- What would you say if God said to you, “What do you want?”
- Are you ready and willing to be specific with God?
God wants to prove himself to each one of us. He wants to show you that he loves you.
- Ask God to surprise you today with how much he loves you.
- Even though God holds the entire universe together, he also watches over each and every individual.
The personal love that God has for each one of us is shown in many and various ways.
- Sometimes God brings us special encouragement.
- Sometimes he provides exactly what we need.
- Sometimes he provides exactly what we need.
- Sometimes God shows his love for us in how he protects us from harm.
In Revelation the apostle John records an invitation from Jesus: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20, RSV).
- Jesus desires this kind of intimacy with each and every believer.
- He invites each one of us to open the door and to experience his personal love for us.
- As we do, we will be changed forever.
craving and resource from “A Beautiful Way” – An Invitation to a Jesus-Centered Life – by Dan Baumann with Mark Klassen
