lasting

"Long ago the LORD said to Israel: 'I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.'" (Jeremiah 31:3)

As I ponder the unfailing love of God, I am comforted and pleased to know that God loves His children so intensely. However, I can't help but wonder... Does our own returned love matches His? Sure we say we love Him, but would we be willing to suffer and die for His Son, Jesus Christ, the way He did for us so that we may have eternal life?

Thankfully, God does not require us to be killed in order to show our love for Him. However, He does require we offer our life to Him by way of how we chose to live.

The life we live, and all we do and say, is a living and breathing testament of our faith, and reveals bluntly if we are going to not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk. Certainly, there may be times we stumble and fall, but God loves us so deeply that He is willing and able to forgive when there is genuine repentance. This, my dear friends, is how we can also show God our most sincere love; are we willing to give up sin for Him, even when sin may feel pleasurable?

When all is said and done, sin may seem "not that bad," but its reality is that it is destructive, not only to our relationship with God, but to our very bones, and the lives of our family members, and anyone else who is affected by our transgressions.

God IS a loving God, and just as He draws us near to Him, likewise, we must cleave to Him in our strength, and in our weakness. Never should we let go, for never would He let you go.

-melanie schurr