God has known you from the beginning of time. In fact, there has never been a time when He did not know and love you. Many find this difficult to believe. They think back to the wrong decisions they have made and wonder how God could love them. Others struggle with sin on a daily basis and think there is no way God will continue to care for them. But God does. He loves us in spite of our past and all we struggle with in the present.
God is not looking for any of us to perform up to a certain level. Instead, He longs for us to love Him with a full heart. When we do this, sin loses its attraction, and we seek to turn away from it. Love as strong as the love of God has the ability to touch even the hardest of hearts. While good performance may change the outward appearance, it can never change the core of a sinful heart. Only the grace and love of God can do this.
Because He is sovereign and in control of all things, we can bring our failures to the Lord and receive full and complete forgiveness. And because we know through His Word that He loves us with an eternal love, we can ask Him to remove the areas of sin in our lives that prove difficult and stubborn. As you pray, tell Him of your sincere love for Him, and ask Him to make a way of freedom and hope for you today.
Book: My Utmost For His Highest
by Oswald Chambers
Obedience to the "Heavenly Vision"
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision
Acts 26:19
If we lose "the heavenly vision" God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to "the heavenly vision" is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
"Though it tarries, wait for it . . ." ( Habakkuk 2:3 ). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that "tarries" is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will "bear much fruit" ( John 15:8 ).
It is essential that we live and "walk in the light" of God’s vision for us ( 1 John 1:7 ).
