God made the birds to fly and the fishes to swim. God made you for love and intimacy. To live life unloved is like clipping the wings of a bird or the fins of a fish. It’s to be unfulfilled.

After God made man, the Bible tells us something deep about the man God created. “And God said, it is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”
(Genesis 2:18)

Did you see that?
You were made for connection, relationship, intimacy, communion. Outside of this, you malfunction.

Man’s first relationship was with his Manufacturers, God. He first spoke and shared with Him. God’s original intention wasn’t to create servants or slaves to serve Him. No! If that’s all about it, then man would not be needed, because God already had myriads of angels. However, God wanted a family of sons (males and females). He wanted sons He could share His life with.

You know, God is love. And it’s the nature of love to share. So God wanted to share His life and nature with man. He wanted to give you His peace, especially when you’re going through some storms. He wanted to share His joy with you, especially when you’re grieving or sad. He wanted you to share in His righteousness.

Not only did God want to share His life with you, but He also wants to share in your own life with you. He wanted to be in touch with your realities. God wants to share in my life? Yes, your life! He wants to be a part of your struggles. He wants to be with you in your grief. He wants to help you out of those things you’re even ashamed to talk about. God wants to take your brokenness and piece it together into something beautiful and attractive.

Yes, that temptation that always makes your trip, God wants to help you find the strength to overcome it. You need to know that He isn’t irritated with you. God isn’t depressed by your failures. God isn’t even expecting you to walk perfectly. Because He knows that you can’t, without Him. All He wants is for you to trust Him enough to let Him help you.

Will you let Him help you today?
Life wasn’t meant to be lived alone. You were not made to go it alone. You were made for intimacy with the Father. That’s where your life, joy, peace, strength flows out from.

Kindly ask God to come and walk this path of life together with you today.

When Daddy God declares over you, “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life,”
He is saying, “I CHERISH you, My Child.”

To cherish is to treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid. God regards you with such tender affection. He cares about you deeply. His everlasting arms are always stretched over you, to keep you safe from harm. He is so deeply moved at the thought of you. For you’re the Son of His love, the offspring of the sacred sacrifice of God’s only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

When God sees you, He remembers all that went into the redemption of your soul. The excruciating pain that His Son endured. The shame. The mockery. The sweat-turned blood. The indescribable agony in Gethsemane.

Father God holds you very dear to His heart. You’re His most precious treasure, the trophy of His Son’s obedience, and triumph over Satan, sin and death.

You may be thinking, “how could God love someone like me, who isn’t doing everything right?”
His incredible love is greater than your failures. God loves you in spite of your slips and falls. He loves you because of Christ’s sacrifice for your soul. And if you will rest in His boundless love for you, sin will loosen its grip on your soul.
The truth of His love will make you free. When you know Him, that He is love and He loves you with all that He is, you will invariably love Him in return.

Daddy God yearns for you with such deep cravings. He yearns to hear your voice. He longs for your fellowship. He desires for you to, not lose sight of Him, while you go through the activities of the day. He loves to hear your heart think about Him, and your voice offer up worship. He adores every moment with you. All because of what Christ has done for you.
You’re forever CHERISHED!

The Lord shouts over you:

“The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing.”

You’re CHERISHED!

In the next couple of days we shall be considering what God really means when He says to you, “I love you.”

Matthew gave us the account of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan river, how that He was baptised by John the Baptist. And how there came a voice out of heaven, declaring:
“… This is My Son, My Beloved, in Whom I delight!”
(Matthew 3:17,AMP)

I can imagine the holy reverence and awe that filled the hearts of those who heard those sacred and blessed words.
Those words came straight from the Father’s heart, declaring His never-endind love for the Son of His love. The Son in whom His soul delighted. And the good news is this, those words didn’t stop with Christ.

“And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is My Son, My Beloved, in Whom I delight!”
Those same sacred Words were said about you, the moment you submitted to the lordship of Christ. They were declared from heaven, and heard on earth and beneath the earth, in the spirit realm.

God says you are His Beloved Child, in whom He delights.
When God says, “I love you,” He means that He DELIGHTS in you. I take a peculiar delight in you.

See how the Message translation renders this verse:
“This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”

God says you’re His Child, chosen and marked by His love, and the delight of His heart. He is saying, “I like you!” God likes you down to your toes.

Isn’t it amazing to know that God likes, delights, and finds pleasure in you?
Oh, how He loves you! There ain’t limit to how He cherishes you. God takes pride in you. As a matter of fact, He wants to flaunt His beauty and magnificence to the whole creation, through you. Apostle Peter attests to this, when he said:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
(1Peter 2:9, AMP)

Imagine waking up and going to bed with the thought that God delights in you; that He isn’t displeased with you.

God is greatly pleased with you.
He isn’t angry with you. You are not disgusting to Him. No! Rather, God derives great pleasure in you, because of Christ’s sacrifice for you.
When God sees you, He sees the offspring of His Son’s death on the cross. And that gives Him great pleasure.

Start each day with this truth, and watch everything change.

Have you ever been hurt by someone so close to you?
And that got you wondering if their love was for real?
Or have you ever hurt someone special to your heart, and that got you wondering if they would still believe your love for them?
Offenses put a question mark on our love and commitment. And until they’re resolved, that silent question may remain in our minds for long, and affect our friendship and deep sense of love.

Restoration of pure love is a deep desire in every heart. Until we believe we are forgiven, we will not believe we are still loved. And that can stand in the way of our relationship, and affect our sense of security.

This also applies in our relationship with God. We all have sinned and come short of His glory. And that separated us from Him. However, He sent His Son to come and give His life for our sins. And reconcile us back to God. Apostle Paul tells us that Christ has lavishly forgiven us:
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”
(Ephesians 1:7, ESV)

Christ has already forgiven your sins – past, present and future. He is not holding anything against you any longer. He isnt imputing your sins against you. No!
“It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).”
(2 Corinthians 5:19, AMP)

Not only has God forgiven you, He has chosen never to remember your sins ever again:

“I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
(Isaiah 43:25, AMP)

… “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
(Hebrews10:17, NIV)

God’s forgiveness is a fact. However, you must believe and receive that forgiveness in your heart. Because until your heart believes and receives God’s forgiveness, until this reality is settled in your heart, you will feel too unworthy to be the object of His affection. You will feel God couldn’t love someone like you. Until you “feel” His forgiveness you won’t “feel” His love!
Until you sense His forgiveness, you won’t accept His love. For receiving His forgiveness is the first step towards a love walk with God. If you feel unworthy of His forgiveness, you will also feel unworthy of His love. Until you accept God’s mercy, you won’t live in the consciousness of His love.

Could this be what’s standing between you and the sense of God’s love for you?
Why hide under self-condemnation and shame and guilt, when you can come forward, in faith and receive forgiveness for your sins, even right now?
For shame, guilt and fear can’t live together with love. It’s either you live with guilt and shame or you allow God’s love to stump them out. You can’t settle for both.

Perhaps, you’re trying to feel His forgiveness. God doesn’t deal with us along the lines of feelings and emotions. These aren’t reliable. We connect with God through our knowledge and faith. So believe His forgiveness, then reach out and receive it by faith.

I pray for you, that you won’t live another day without the assurance of God’s forgiveness, and a restored sense of His love for you. In Jesus Name

Your entire life revolves around the revelation of God’s unending and unconditional love for you. Whether you fail or succeed with people, the reason won’t be far fetched from your understanding or non-understanding of God’s love for you.

There are a few thoughts I wish to explore in this post.
First, God’s love for you is unconditional. What that means is that, His love for you has no strings attached. His love isn’t premised on what you have or haven’t done or said. God loves you, not because you’re lovable. No! He loves you because He is love, and decided to love you. He loves you because it’s His nature to share His life and goodness. God loves you because love is His very essence.
Apostle John the beloved says that God first loved us.

“We love because he first loved us.”
(1John 4:19, ESV)

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
(1John 4:10, NIV)

And Apostle Paul said that, not only does God first loved us, but He loved us when we were of no use to Him whatsoever. He loved us when we were still sinners and satan-ruled.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8, NIV)

That’s unconditional love!

Second, you have to LET God love you.
No matter how much you want to show love to someone, if they won’t let you, you just can’t. It’s the same with God. While He loves you so much, He can’t force you to accept His love for you. No! He is gracious and never forceful. He would never force His love on you. It’s strictly your responsibility, to accept His love. You either believe that He loves you or you don’t. You either open your heart to understand the depth of His love for you or you don’t. It’s strictly up to you, dear one. It all begins with changing your perception or picture of who God is. If your picture of God is wrong, there is no way you will want to be intimate with such a God. So you will subconsciously shut your mind against His love. God is good. He isn’t evil. God is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is readily forgiving. As a matter of fact, He has forgiven you all your sins – past, present and future. He isn’t imputing your wrong doings in your account. No! He had put all your sins to Christ’s account. And had made Him suffer the full punishment for them.
Neither is He keeping a record of your failures. He blotted them out with His blood. God loves and values you enough to die for you. That’s something very big!

Open your heart, my friend , and let God love you the way only He can. Believe His love for you. Study to grow in your knowledge of His great love for you. Only then will you be energized to face the world, triumphantly.

God’s Love Suffers Long!

Today we continue looking at the nature of God’s love for us. Let’s begin right here:

“O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.”
(Psalm 136:1,AMP)

When I was meditating on this Scripture, the word “endure” attracted my attention. So I looked it up in the dictionary, and this is what I found:

“To experience and deal with something that is painful or unpleasant, especially without complaining.”

God’s love suffers along with us. When we go through unpleasant times, and life no longer makes sense, He is right there with us, feeling our pains and bearing up under the weight of our struggles. And even when His love for us no longer makes sense to us, He never gets angry and gives up on us. No! He sticks with us, gently soothing our hurt and bringing us to a place, where we sense His tangible love again in our heart. He never gives up on us. No, not even when we seem to be on the run from Him.

In another sense, God’s love suffers, bearing with us in our weaknesses. Our indifference towards Him makes Him suffer in His deep love for us. Since it’s the nature of love to give, when love’s affection and kindness is rejected, love suffers. God bears with all our failures, complacency, lukewarmness, and never gives up on us. He forgives us when we reach out in faith for it. And never ever fails or denies us. He says in Hosea 11:8, that He can’t give up on you, because His compassions for you are unlocked. This is the power of love!

“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes…and it endures everything [without weakening].”
(1Corinthians13:7, AMP)

God’s love for us never grows weak or stale. No!
His love for us is ever new. And there’s nothing anybody can do yo change this fact. There’s nothing His love can’t bear.

The psalmist said the Lord is compassionate, full of mercy and gracious toward us.

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness.”
(Psalm 103:8,AMP)

The Lord is merciful. That is, He is readily forgiving. He is gracious. That is, He is leaning toward us with great favor and regard for us. The Lord is slow to anger. He is not easily angered. He is not irritable. Because He is full of mercy and love for us. And His love endures forever. His love suffers long.

This truth that God’s love endures forever is such an important truth, that you need to ingest it in your spirit. Because your relationships, responses and attitudes toward others largely depend on your understanding of the truth. Your understanding of God’s love directly affects your love life. For instance, if you understand that God’s love for you is enduring, you will be able to freely, without fear, reach out in faith and receive His forgiveness, and also forgive yourself, when you sin against Him. For you can only love yourself and others to the degree that you know you have been loved. And the quality of your love for others can only reflect what you believe is the depth of God’s love for you. You will bear with yours and others’ failures only if you know that God bears with yours. Else, you will have a critical, judgmental and condemning attitude towards yourself and others, in moments of failure.

Do you have a dream to live a life that’s reckless in acts of love for others?
Do you want to live a triumphant life, devoid of defeats?
If YES, then you need to be grounded and settled in your conviction of the unthinkable depths of God’s boundless and unconditional love for you.

“O give thanks to the God of heaven, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!”
(Psalm 136:26,AMP)

“Does he love me as much as l love him?”

“Does she love me as much as I love her?”

Do these statements sound familiar?
I can relate with them. We all should. For it’s a deep-seated need in the heart of every human to want to be sure that we are truly loved and valued. But more, not only do we want to know that we are loved by a fellow human, but also that we are loved by God.

So how much does God love us?

Jesus Himself answered this question, when He stated,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16,NIV)

For a deeper insist into the magnitude and intensity of God’s love for us, I shall consider two words from Christ’s statement; “So” and “loved”

The word “So” as used here, is an adverb, a submodifier of the verb “loved”.
It means “to such a great extent.”
It’s also used for the purpose of emphasis, to mean “extremely; very much”

So putting it back into John 3:16, we’ll have something like this:
“For God loved the world to such a great extent, that he gave his only begotten Son…”

You’re loved to such a great extent. You’re loved very much. God’s love for you is extreme love. The intensity of God’s love for you is also captured by John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He said,
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
(1John4:9,NIV)

God loved you to such an unthinkable extent, that He sacrificed His only begotten Son for you!
That’s crazy love!

Let’s proceed to our next word, “loved”
This word is from the Greek word agape. Agape describes a kind of love that occurs when the lover sees and appreciates the value of a person, causing the lover to regard the person with great esteem, admiration, wonder and sincere appreciation. His love for that person is strong that it is irresistible. The lover’s affection for this person is so much that, he will sacrifice himself for the sake of the person, if need be.
What a love!
The only Bible translation that comes close to capturing the richness of this word in John 3:16 is the Amplified translation. It reads,

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”

God so greatly loves you.
God values you highly. He so dearly prizes you. He looks at you with such great admiration and wonder. His love for you is so compelling, that He sacrificed His Son, Jesus for your sake.
Only agape could do such a crazy thing!

For the Father so greatly loved and
dearly prized (put your name), that He sacrificed His Son for your sake.
The Son so greatly loved and dearly prized (put your name), that He gave up His life, that you might live through Him; and sent the Holy Spirit to you.
The Holy Spirit so greatly loved and dearly prized (put your name), that He came to live inside you forever.

What I am trying to communicate is this:
The measure of God’s love for you is, the Gift of His Son Jesus.
The measure of Christ’s love for you is, His death on the cross for you.
And the measure of the Spirit’s love for you is, His indwelling presence in your life, to make you all that you were meant to be.

Christ’s death on the cross clears every doubt – if there ever was – about God’s unfathomable love and boundless affection for you.

What are you going to do with this beautiful truth?
Meditate on it. Let it fill your heart until it comes pouring out through your mouth, in confessions of faith. Let this truth become so rich in you, that it stumps out every trace of fear, doubt, rejection, abandonment, inferiority. Let God’s love set you free today. In Jesus Name.

With much love,

Prince Iorungwa Najime

The Creator decided to put within everyone a deep-seated, and overwhelming desire for intimacy. Everyone longs to love and be loved. Everyone craves for a relationship of some sort; we just want to feel connected or belonging. And almost as strong as the overwhelming desire to love and be loved is, the fear of intimacy. The fear of intimacy manifests itself in two basic ways. It may come as the fear of heartbreak or being jilted. And the fear of getting too close than it’s convenient for you; the fear of being trapped in a relationship.

Lots of people are plagued by the fear of being let down or being left in a relationship, especially if they had suffered that before. You know, the thought of going into another relationship that may brake their hearts again can be scary. For me, my greatest fear was that of getting too close for convince. I had loved being independent. And my sense of independence got such a strong grip on me, that I feared that if I got into a serious relationship, I might lose it. And that, for me, was like losing myself. I feared that I would always have to explain what I was doing, where I was and all that. For me, that’s losing my independence. That felt like a trap. And that I dreaded.

While those fears may make you feel like you’re on the safe side – safe from the hurt of heartbreak and safe from being choked – they also keep you from experiencing the joy and the thrill of lovingly intimate relationships. These fears stand in the way of intimacy. They hold you back from pouring the best of yourself into your relationship. Consequently, they also stop you from enjoying the richness of the relationship.

If you must unlock the treasure locked up in any relationship, you must be willing to be vulnerable. As a matter of fact, going into a relationship opens you up to the possibilities of being left and loss of independence. However, you can’t live your life based on your fears. You could either choose to let fear drive your relationship or let faith do the driving.
For me, I knew I had a decision to make, a fear to conquer. And I needed to do it as quickly as it’s possible. Usually, when I face a situation, almost always, the first thing I do is turn to God. Because I know that left on my own, I can so mess things up. ?
So I turned to my Bible. I saw verses like, “He who finds a wife has found a good thing, and has obtained favor from the Lord.”
OK, so a serious relationship that would lead to marriage didn’t look like a curse!
It’s a blessing.
And “the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow.”
It’s getting better. My mind was greatly beginning to shift. I was gaining a new perspective, a brand new way of seeing my relationship. And along with it, my fear of being trapped in a relationship was gradually giving way.
Then I came to a verse like, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”
I felt good, because I could trust Him, to guide my choice. I really needed His help. So I asked for it. And I received it!
Today, my wife and I are the best of friends. I love spending lots of time with her. Can’t seem to have enough! ?

You can choose to let God’s Word change your thinking, to overwrite your fears today, and experience the abundant life He came to give in your relationship or you could choose to hold tightly to your fears and also miss out on loving, intimate relationship.
Choose the former.

With much Love.

Familiar lines, huh?
Marital vows!
Such beautiful words. I remembered when my wife and I took ours. It was with such deep emotions.

The union of marriage is such a beautiful gift. But much more thrilling is the fact that marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the believers, His Church. Christ is the Groom; and the Church His Bride. You’re His and He is yours. That’s why His Spirit came to live inside you permanently as a seal of His betrothal.

We are individually parts of His own body; “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.” We have become one spirit with Him. The two have become one. One new divine creation.

It’s breathtaking to know that God, the Maker of heaven and earth, would allow Himself to be emotionally involved with us, that He would let His heart be bound to us forever.

God takes a peculiar delight in us. We are the objects of His boundless affection. He looks upon us with such pleasure and deep satisfaction.

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
(Zephaniah 3:17,
NIV)

God isn’t merely tolerating you. No! He loves you with such unthinkable affection. He delights greatly in you. He rejoices over you. That is, you bring Him such pure pleasure.

How my spirit is stirred up within me!
Such love!

Here is another wonder for you: God NOURISHES and CHERISHES you.

“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church”
(Ephesians 5:29, ESV)

Nourish and cherish. These are words of deep intimacy. We will miss so much, if we don’t stay here a little longer.

What does it mean to NOURISH and to CHERISH?
When I looked these words up on the dictionary app on my mobile device, I came up with this:
To NOURISH means to feed and cause to grow; to furnish with nutriment; to supply the means of support and increase; to encourage; to instruct; educate; to bring up; to nurture…

And to CHERISH
means “to treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care ; to protect and aid.”
It also means, “to hold dear; to embrace with interest; to indulge; to encourage; to foster; to promote…”

Such infinite richness in just two words!

In a world full of fears and ill will, this truth brings with it such security. Such comfort and assurance. We can face each day with gusto, knowing that Someone has got us totally covered. He is the Almighty God, the One Who is madly in love with us. Our upkeep is His delight. He nourishes and cherishes us. He treats us with tenderness and affection. He holds us dear to Himself. And He is committed to protecting us in a world full of arrows and bullets. God is your Encourager. He is your Promoter. He is your Provider, and Comforter. God is everything to you.

Let this truth stump out fear from your mind. Give no more room to rejection, inferiority and worthlessness. You don’t have to feel helpless or not loved enough any longer. For the King of all the earth NOURISHES and CHERISHES you.

With much love.

Much more powerful than the togetherness that marital commitment brings is, the togetherness that accepting Christ brings between God and man.

“But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”

(1Cor 6:17)

When anyone accepts Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live in them forever.

“And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the [Holy] Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba (Father)! Father!”(Gal 4:6, AMP)

Even death cannot separate them: 

“…God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrew 13:5, NIV)

Within their new home, John and Benita will sometimes have to be in different parts of the house. They would also go out and be apart a lot. But the Holy Spirit is so firmly and deeply fixed in you that you are never apart from Him. Not even for a second!

He is so committed to loving us that He didn’t stay in heaven nor moved into the neighbourhood. He chose to come and live within anyone who would let Him.
He seeks to have a rich, unbroken fellowship with us every minute of our lives.

May you give him the chance of abiding in you and commit to relating with him always.

If this post has blessed you, we will love to hear from you.

By Princess Beatrice Najime