Morning Glories: Rich

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”
Isaiah 61:10

Have you ever thought about how rich we are? When you’re not blinded by worldly things that so easily and frequently get in the way, you can see just how rich we are in Christ. We are clothed with the garments of salvation that have been bought at the greatest price. All the riches in the world could not come close to being sufficient to the price that was paid on the cross for our salvation. We have been covered with the robe of righteousness, and all we had to do was become obedient to God’s will.

We are so very, very rich, aren’t we? I don’t know how much more I could say about this verse without being repetitive. I hope you all feel rich today as you remember what our Lord has clothed us with.

Morning Glories: Seek to be Restored

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
Psalm 51:10-12

I can’t read these verses without singing the song in my head. Do you know which song I’m talking about? It’s one of my favorites. I love it. I love these verses because the psalmist perfectly portrays our complete reliance on God, especially in our darker times.

Nobody is perfect. Christ Jesus is the only One who lived on this earth and lived it perfectly. He was in always tempted as we are, yet without sin! {Hebrews 4:15}

We do fall, we all do. {Romans 3:23} And when we do, where do we go? We go to God {at least, we should}. Isn’t it comforting to know that even when we mess up {and we will}, we can always go to God for restoration and renewal.

These verses also really shows us that there is joy in salvation, and that means when we are separated from God, there is no joy. At least no true joy, spiritual joy. It is so nice to have that joy in Christ, such a comfort and a blessing to know that when we are within the flock, we can rest assured that we are protected, cleaned, and can live joyfully and contentedly.

May we always seek to be restored if the situation arises that we need to be! I hope your day is beautiful, and if you encounter storms, I hope that you are safe and protected, and your loved ones as well!

Conditions on Love

Something  has been on my mind lately and I hope you don’t mind my fleshing it out here. Stick around if you’d like and if not, no worries. It’s been on my mind since it was mentioned in passing at a Ladies’ Breakfast we had here and it has just been on my mind and I can’t get it off. It’s the subject of love, which personally I think we need more of. More love. Stronger love. Love that brings about obedience and love that causes you to want to bring others to Christ and make sure that they are right with God in all areas of their life. We need more love.

But sometimes we tend to put conditions on our love. How come we do this? We are only willing to love someone if they happen  to fulfill some of your needs, or perhaps if they make you feel good, or they like the same things as you do, or they hold the same opinions. In marriages, we love our spouse as long as they take the trash out when we ask them to or keep the house clean or make the dinner or fill other needs. We place conditions on ourselves and on others concerning their appearance or how they react to the way we function.

We are told many times in the Bible that the greatest commandment is love: loving the Lord our God, loving our neighbors as ourselves {and that means that we need to love ourselves in the first place too}, and we’re to love our enemies. Love is stressed so many times in the Bible and yet we find so many reasons why we shouldn’t love.

Does God place conditions on His love? Some might think that unless you’re a Christian, God doesn’t truly love you. This isn’t true. God doesn’t put conditions on His love. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8; God showed us how He loved us while we were yet sinners! Humanity had rebelled against God, disobeying His commandments and turning against Him in every which way. And yet while man did this, God still loved us all enough to send His Son to die for us on the cross to shed His blood – the blood that washes away our sins when we come to Him in obedience {Romans 10:17; Matthew 16:16; Acts 17:30,31; Romans 10:8-10; Acts 2:38}! There are no conditions to God’s love – He loves us regardless of what we have done! {That isn’t to say that there is no condition to salvation – that is proved within the verses listed above.}

So if God, who gave His Son to die for those who rebelled against Him and continue to rebel against Him can show us unconditional love and desire the best for us {that is, to be saved – 1 Timothy 2:4}, how come we can’t show the same unconditional love toward each other. Instead of holding grudges against each other for the smallest slights, or being way to sensitive so that every little thing sets us against each other… why can’t we just say, “We are all human, we all make mistakes, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are to love one another.”

I just don’t understand why we always insist on placing conditions on our love. And that isn’t to say that I don’t do this. I certainly do. And it is something I certainly need to work on. Let’s all love each other.