I Never Quite Realized

I've Never Quite Realized

I have a good friend who has a ministry called Gospel Friendships. He is a great mentor to many disciples. Here is something he wrote in a recent newsletter:

I never quite realized,

that what I've been looking for all my life, is unconditional love. What I thought I was looking for, was happiness, and what I thought would bring me happiness, was success, in the eyes of others, but also in my own eyes. How much success does a success-addict need to be happy? Just a little bit more. A success-addict becomes a highly-competitive person, always wanting more, always comparing himself to others, wanting "competitors" to fail, so he can succeed. But sadly, always noticing others who are yet more successful, and tasting the bitterness of failure, by comparison.

And moving vocationally from the business world into ministry, enables a success-addict to have sanctified ambition, be considered worthy, successful in the eyes of other Christian leaders, and followers. But even in ministry, success does not lead to happiness. Like Ecclesiastes says, nothing leads to happiness. Not in a world that has been Cursed by the Creator.

I have concluded that I have an insatiable appetite for unconditional love, and that the only place I can find that kind of love, is in a relationship with the Lover of my soul, the God of the Universe who created everything. Others fail me, over and over, and I fail myself, over and over. Jesus, the Lover of my soul has never ever failed me. Not once. He does for me, what no one else can do, what I cannot do for myself. He loves me with a patient, forgiving, forbearing, limitless love. I am precious to Him, no matter how much I embarrass Him, ignore Him, fail Him. He cherishes me, enjoys me, just as I am, warts and all. Unbelievable. Inconceivable. Nothing in this life, compares to the preciousness of His unconditional love. My limitless need is met, by His unlimited capacity to love, even the likes of me.

He who has a sense of having been forgiven much, has a sense of having been loved much. It has been God's grace to me, His favor, His blessing to me, that He has so loved me over and over and over, through the years, that I have been increasingly secure enough in His love, for Him to enable me to look honestly inside, and see how much worse I am, than I ever imagined. I have needed a growing self-awareness, to appreciate the unconditionality, the immenseness, of His love. When I was more clueless, I barely grasped the immenseness of His love. I suspect I am still woefully deficient, but what I know today, is that I am overwhelmed by His love far more than I used to be, and recognize, far more than I used to, my need for a kind of love that only He can give. No one else does for me, what He does for me. He is the Pearl of Great Price, worth selling all to get, because happiness is found nowhere else. Except when I'm living in denial of how bad I am, and how bad it is in the world around me. -- Dave McCarty, Gospel Friendships

God's Word for YOU: Proverbs 24; Psalm 35-36; Acts 25

Great Quote: Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ like in the middle of our problems but on finding happiness.... I must firmly and consciously by an act of my will reject the goal of becoming happy and adopt the goal of becoming more like the Lord. The result will be happiness for me as I learn to dwell at God's right hand in fellowship with Christ. --Larry Crabb

Yesterday I shared a devotional with you written by our good friend, Jorge Zambrano. Yesterday morning, Jorge went home to be with Jesus after a long battle with cancer. Please keep Jorge's family in your prayers.