Jesus Loves Me, This I Don't Really Know
Have ever wondered if God really loves you? Let's dig into knowing God.
God has taught me so much over the last few years. My life fell apart. My kidney cancer raged, I lost almost all my friends, and I faced loneliness. Turns out it was the best thing that could ever happen to me.
Being cut off from everyone and everything except family and a few close friends left me to spend much more time with my Father, Daddy, and God, who loves me unconditionally. Before, I had never grasped God's love for me. I always thought that He loved me but didn't like me. He seemed like a judge, always looking for flaws, making me feel inadequate and never quite good enough. I thought I had to earn His love and blessing while at the same time knowing better than that.
I preached the love of God. Academically, I understood that God loves the world and everyone, even me, but I didn't feel that way in my case.
I have loved God and served Him for well over 60 years. God has richly blessed me in every endeavor. I have lived a charmed life. I can't say that I knew God as intimately as I wanted to or needed to.
I certainly have a long way to go, but I am learning. God's love is changing me. His love changes the way I see myself and everyone else. God's love changes my attitude. His love put the song back in my heart in my darkest days.
Did you know that eternal life is much more than just living forever? It is about the quality of life the Lord gives us right now. Eternal life is a deep, meaningful relationship with our Father.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
Knowing God, as found in this verse, is eternal life. Studying about God differs from knowing God. Facts and fellowship are two distinct entities.
God became man. All of God was in Jesus. You can never separate the Trinity. Where God is, God is, whether He is God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.
John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is God sending the Son into humanity as one of us to fulfill all of God's promises.
The word "know" in John 17:3 is the same word used to describe the intimacy of a sexual relationship elsewhere in the Bible. So, this knowledge is way deeper than academic head knowledge. This relationship is eternal and intimate, a real relationship.
Eternal life is nothing other than the life of God. To possess eternal life, to enter it, is to experience here and now something of the splendor, majesty, joy, peace, and holiness characteristic of God's life, and that is true eternal life.