Our Hope is Found in God’s Unfailing Love

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:5-10 (NIV)

God is light. God is love. And somehow, God chooses us every single day.

Though we cannot fully comprehend this reality, it remains true all the same. God’s character isn’t determined by our understanding of Him–for we are limited by human constraints. God will always be holy and worthy of our praise.

It is through recognizing our blind spots, our lack of understanding, and our utter brokenness that we discover our yearning for a Savior.

We cannot save ourselves, no matter how strong we become or how closely we follow the rules. But that is no slight against us, for out of His love, God created us to need Him.

God offers the perfect Savior–Jesus–with one simple request: submission to His love.

Submission to His love means laying down our own desires and asking what He wants from us, because His ways are better. It means pursuing a relationship with God, who is always there and will never abandon us. It even means acknowledging our imperfections while celebrating that we have the perfect Father in Heaven.

I won’t pretend that submission is easy. In fact, it requires great sacrifice and a transformed mind. But when we call out to God as we struggle to surrender our wills, He will give us the strength to keep going.

Christmas is about celebrating the everlasting love of our eternal Father. We gasp in wonder at the tremendous sacrifice God made by sending His only son, Jesus, to undergo the human experience and eventually die for our sins.

We are given new life through Jesus, who overcame death and will return for us someday. Though we will grieve the brokenness, injustice, and heartache of this world, our hope is anchored in the the only One who can redeem.

May you experience God’s abounding love for you and be made whole through Him. He will never forsake you, His beloved child, and He is calling you close to Him today.

Merry Christmas!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)