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“When we are at our worst, He is at His best.”

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime  (p. 87). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

The whole thought here by Mark is, “One of our core values as a church is, love people when they least expect it and least deserve it. That is the kind of love Jesus shows to us. When we are at our worst, He is at His best.”

Wow.  That is so true of me.  He loves me, He loves me and He loves me.  No matter what I have done He loves me.  That is more love that I give to myself. 

I love the Psalms.  I read one every day.  I have done it for years.  Today’s Psalm was the 92nd Psalm and starting with verse 1 it says, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the most high.”  That is a good way to start each day but then verse 2 says, “It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening…”  No matter what I am going to be doing good or bad God is not going to fail to love me.  You and I no matter what are going to be loved today by God.

Mark then says, “The ability to love someone because they do what you want them to do is common. The ability to love someone despite what they have done, simply because of who they are, is rare. Yet Jesus shows us over and over in the Gospels that He loved people not because of what they did or didn’t do. That wasn’t the focus of love. He kept reaching out to the people who didn’t expect to be loved— the outcasts, the misfits, the sinners. He didn’t love them because of who they were. He loved them because of who He was. There is something profound about a love that is not performance based. True love doesn’t give grades. If it did, we’d all fail. But on the cross, we got a pass. Jesus took the test for us... He loved us when we least expected it and least deserved it. And that’s what sets us free.”

He loves you.


Why don’t you accept His love today and share it with others?

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