You are Loved

When I was a little girl there was a jewelry store in Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids that had a large glass bowl full of little red, circular pins. These pins had the words, “You are Loved!” written in white on them. They were free for the taking and I often grabbed a few out and pinned one to my shirt to wear and gave the others out to family or friends.

Now, I realize that this was a marketing ploy to sell more jewelry and attract customers in to their store (not penniless kids like me) but I just couldn’t resist that message of love. I believe all of us long to feel truly loved and loved forever.

As we near Valentine’s Day, I want you to feel loved. No, let me change that. I want you to understand that you are already very loved. And if you have Christ, you have been marked with an irrevocable seal far better than any little pin on your shirt that I could ever give you.

The Bible tells us Christians that we are loved thousands of times in thousands of ways. The entire Bible is truly a love story written for us from beginning to end. It is a story of being lost, empty and without hope until a Savior finds us, fills us and promises to keep us with him forever. The love we receive is undeserved, unfathomable, and irrevocable.

The love found in the Bible can be summed up in one name – Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is God’s love manifested in flesh and sent to save the unlovables of this world - us. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

The only way to ever have love or feel loved is to have Jesus Christ. There is no separating the two. God is love, he doesn’t contain love or just show love, he IS love. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8).

The only way to love others is to share Christ with them. You may offer a hungry person something to eat, but if it is not done with the love of Christ it is worthless. That person will still die of starvation, a spiritual starvation. Offer them tangible bread to eat and the Bread of Life so that they will never hunger again (John 6:35). That’s how you love others, you show them Jesus.

I told you this is a forever love and it is. Romans 8:38 &39 – “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nope, once you have Christ, nothing separates the two of you ever again. That’s a secure relationship!

If you feel this is all “old news”, you know Jesus loves you and died in order to save you and yet you don’t feel he really knows you or is near you, let me introduce you to Psalms 139. Read it, I mean it, go read it right now! You will see just how intimately God knows you.

God’s promises are rock solid, but I can’t believe them for you, you have to trust them for yourself. Allow his love to soak into your life and satisfy you fully.

Now here is one of the awesome parts… we have been permanently marked as belonging to God forever. Think of it as a permanent “I am Loved!” pin on you. This promise is found in Ephesians 1:13 & 14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

You may not be able to see it but you are walking around with a big seal on your body saying you are the eternal possession of the eternal King of Glory. Wow, talk about being loved! That’s you my friend. Rejoice in the love of God that is written all over you forever.