I LOVE THE LORD BECAUSE…

“I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.” Psalm 116:1,2

How would you finish the phrase “I love the Lord because….” ?

That’s the question I asked myself as I was meditating on Psalm 116 the past few days. After mulling it around in my mind a while, I asked my husband Jorge how he would finish the sentence. We both agreed that at the top of the list would be “He loved me first.” (1^st John 4:19). He didn’t wait till we were “good enough” to love… (none of us could ever be “good enough”!) He loved us right where we were, no matter how “good” or “bad” we’d been. That’s one of the amazing characteristics of God’s love. The apostle Paul expressed this truth very simply: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Even though I was raised in a Christian home and attended church regularly, I was a self-centered, proud, obnoxious teen. That’s when I understood that God loved me and sent Jesus to die for me. I wasn’t loveable, but He loved me anyway! Even more amazing is that He kept on loving me as I grew up, and keeps on loving me as I grow older (we won’t say HOW old here…). When I doubt Him, He loves me. When I choose my own way, He loves me. When I am indifferent towards Him, He loves me. When I think I can handle things on my own, He loves me. When I stumble, He loves me. Is there ever a time when He doesn’t love me? NO! He promised that His love would NEVER depart from me. Here’s our assurance in the words of the apostle Paul:

Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture… None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (Romans 8:35-39, taken from “The Message”)

I love the Lord because He loved me first. And because He still loves me. And because He’ll always love me.

How would you finish the phrase “I love the Lord because….” ?