“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 NLT)
Love is hard. It’s hard to give, but sometimes even harder to receive. Why do you think that is? Perhaps the Prophet Jeremiah was on to something when he wrote: “For My people have done two evil things: They have abandoned Me – the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”
What rich imagery describing the plight of mankind in 2025. How ignorant we are of the simple, yet profound truth that God loves us. We desperately need love, yet we’re too stubborn to see it, but the Lord keeps reaching, seeking, extending His grace to each of us. His living water is flowing, but our broken lives can’t hold it. What are we to do?
Perhaps the answer lies in our willingness to see God’s love for us personally. What if rather than seeing or hearing God’s Word say: “For God so loved the world,” we saw it and read it, “For God so loved ME!”
We carry so much baggage it’s hard to raise our head enough to view the face of the Master as He hangs on the Cross. We know and realize, at least intellectually, that He died for the world. But it’s not until we can see in His holy, pain-filled face, His love for ME! His agonizing sacrifice for ME! It’s not until we can finally view that Cross and say: For ME! that it will finally “click,” finally begin to make sense that I should put my trust in Him and yield my life and allegiance to Him.
Paul declares in Romans 3:24: “Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People (YOU and me) are made right with God when they (You and me) believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood (in OUR place).”
Jesus didn’t deserve to be on that Cross – you and I DID! He took our rightful place, the place we deserved to be to die for our sins, the very sins that nailed Him there. Hell is real. Jesus talked about Hell more than He talked about heaven.
Whether the descriptions are literal or figurative is immaterial. The point is, hell is separation from God, the God who has made a way for us to be saved, forgiven, to escape hell and find a place in heaven. To miss heaven is a mistake. It’s just plain dumb. It’s like offering a starving person food, but they refuse to eat. Yes, maybe they’re at the point of needing intravenous feeding, but the point is the same – COME TO JESUS!
If you want to die, I get it. Been there. But what I didn’t understand was that I was already dead in my sin. What I was feeling was designed by God to help me understand my desperation without Him. Once I gave my life to Jesus, He freed me from the penalty of my sin, not only eternal hell, but the hell I was living with on this earth.
Jesus is a lot of things, but He’s not a liar. He only tells the truth. He didn’t have to do what He did, but volunteered because He knew if He didn’t die in our place there would be no other way for us to be forgiven and given the new life necessary to qualify us for heaven.
Like me, you are broken without Jesus. Let Him mend your brokenness today. Please, I implore you, come to Him today. Find the peace for which you’ve been searching. Put an end to your misery by saying “yes” to Jesus!
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 