Redeeming Eyes of Love

Have you ever been in a place in your life or maybe you are there right now, where you have felt overwhelming despair? How long has it been since you have felt healing love, if ever? A love so great, it heals all that is broken within you, heart and soul. Do you see yourself as a broken vessel, worthless and no hope? Are you brokenhearted, have you been down a path that you wish you had not taken? You have messed up royally along the way and hurt many people or maybe even destroyed some lives. Maybe you have lost loved ones and you are feeling all alone.

You are also probably wondering about me and what I could possibly know about any of the situations mentioned above. Well I know a lot; life experience has taught me a lot about not feeling worthy of God’s love and yet He has shown me over and over evidence of His love; the first being the realization that my sins nailed Jesus to the cross and just by believing and receiving Him, I received eternal salvation and God said, no charge, no other payment needed, Jesus already paid the price! When you finally come to that realization, no other proof of the love of God is needed. I have done some things before I was saved that tore my family apart. My son was killed in an automobile accident when he was 16 years old. My husband has been an alcoholic and a drug addict for many, many years. The rage and other self destructive qualities that it created in him has also helped to tear our family apart. Through all of this our older son has been through his share of issues and every mother reading this can probably identify with me when I say, when your children hurt, it tears your heart apart. Through the things I have done I have asked God, “How can you possibly love me?” I have felt totally unworthy of His love. But that is the beauty of God’s love; it is not about us; it is about Him and His free gift of salvation. That is what free is, no charge, nothing needs to be done because He already did it over 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross. His grace and mercy are a gift and there is nothing we need to do to receive it except ask. As the song says, “Just as I am and without one plea, I come,” that is how God accepts us. God has showed me over and over that “nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God.”

You are probably thinking, “I have done too much, I’ve hurt too many people. There is no chance God would ever forgive or love me.” Well, think again. Come to the Lord and let Him open your eyes and your heart to the truth of the Father’s love. He does not see you that way. Your way is not hidden from God. He knows the roads in life that you have traveled, good or bad. (Isaiah 40:27-31) “Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God?’ Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”

This Bible deals with the issues of life and the roads those issues led His people down and what they became because of them. Jacob lied and deceived his father and through reaping the consequences and seeking God he became, Israel. David sang songs to the Lord; you know them as the Book of Psalms. He committed adultery and killed a man because of it; upon repenting God made him into a great king and called him as “a man after My own heart.” Moses killed an Egyptian and God used him to lead the Israelites out of bondage to the Egyptians into the Promised Land. As you read you will begin to see yourself the way God sees you. You will see yourself through the Father’s Eyes. Let God speak to you as you read and He will reveal His unconditional love to you. (Psalm 103:8-10) “The Lord is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”

His love is the antidote to all the wrong choices you have made. Thanks to Jesus you can start life anew! He sees your mistakes and loves you anyway and says, “Come to Me and I will give you a new heart and change you from the inside out.” (II Corinthians 5:17) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old had gone, the new has come!” In Christ you can throw of the old and put on the new. (Ephesians 4:22-24) “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” You will be new in Him. Jesus came to save the world, not to judge or condemn. Ask and you will be forgiven of all, no exceptions. (Hebrews 8:12) “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” He came to make us whole, nothing missing; nothing broken. God looks beyond the rough exterior and sees the heart. He loves from the inside out. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Your life is not news to Him. As you have taken the roads of destruction He did not say, “O Me, what has he/she done now?” No, He has been through your trials ahead of you. (Deuteronomy 9:3) “But be assured today that the Lord your God is the One who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire.” He already knows what you have done and what lies ahead. He has already prepared interventions for you. Since you are reading this, this is one of them.

God saw the sin and the lusts of the world, the hatred and all the idolatry and He still chose to save us. That is love. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet, they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” God’s love is so amazing! He looks beyond all of our faults and our human imperfections and the sins we commit and He loves us anyway. He loves us because of who we are; we are His children, and not because of what we do. There would be no one to love if that were so.

He created us in His image; therefore the joy and excitement we feel in the good times or when we are expecting something great to happen, He feels too. He also feels anger at His children being abused and mistreated. He hates sin but loves the sinner. He feels sadness. When He sends people into our paths time and time again to witness and they are met with rejection, He feels sad.

There is so much love and peace in knowing Him and yet people still reject Him. When those near miss accidents happen time after time in which you could have been seriously hurt, you never thought of thanking Him. He feels sad. As the jobs came time after time that provided your income you never once thought to thank Him. Instead you looked for something wrong in the job to complain about. Have you ever thought that we are all human and “we all fall short of the glory of God?” We are all flesh and God gave us free will to use for good or bad, it is our choice and no one on this earth is perfect. You will find people everywhere you are in life who do not appreciate or understand you and hurt your feelings or mistreat you. Instead of looking for something wrong, be grateful that you are not in the unemployment line. God feels sad.

The hate crimes such as murder, rape and abuse, which are so rampant in the world, bring tears to His eyes. For in (Jeremiah 13:17) He says, “But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be taken captive.” The addictions of the world that people run to for a temporary peace, instead of the permanent peace that He alone can give, makes Him sad.

The disciples scattered when the soldiers came. We do the same thing every time we choose to sin. We turn our backs on Him. Jesus foretold their scattering in (John 16:32) “You will leave Me all alone.” The soldiers came and took our Jesus away and they still ran.

I wrote all of this to say, “What an awesome God we serve!” “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

As the disciples scattered and us as well, we leave Him all alone every time we choose the path of self-righteousness, pride, unforgiveness, legalism, addictions, bitterness and hatred instead of His path of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control and forgiveness. Yet He still chose to let them spit on Him, beat Him, insult Him and place a crown of thorns on His head.

Can you imagine the sadness He felt? He was made in human form, so He could understand our weaknesses and temptations, but along with that He felt the same emotions too. As the disciples scattered and we reject Him, He still carried the cross. He carried it and was hung on it. He did this for us. That should have been me and should have been you, but He stepped in and took our place. To understand God’s love all you really have to do is look at the cross. (Romans 5:8) “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God does not look at the outward appearance to decide His love for us. He loved us first and created us in love and died for us while we were sinning against Him. (I John 4:19) “We love because He first loved us.”

As you read the Bible you will see a love so great that no human mind can truly comprehend. Most of us love with a phileo love (brotherly love) or an eros love (intimate love). We usually love when we are loved first. This is not so with God. His love is an agape love, unconditional. So, how then can anything separate us from that love? There is nothing; you cannot say that for most human beings on this earth.

As I have drawn closer to God seeking Him everyday, I have learned to see myself through “My Father’s Eyes.” He sees me as His child, His creation, and “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God has loved me with an everlasting love; and drawn me with loving-kindness. God’s love is a love with arms wide open. He loved us enough to die for us. In Christ there is always hope. He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

My Father’s Eyes say, “I love you; you are MINE.” His eyes say, “nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As you read the Bible He will reveal His love to your heart and you will discover a love of God so great, you will see yourself through the Father’s Eyes. Look into His eyes of love and receive and be made new!

REDEEMING EYES OF LOVE

I have walked the road of heartache and pain and gave my heart away somewhere along the way.

The roads I've traveled since are many, some were bitterness and anger, some were self-pity and others unforgiveness. In giving it away numbness filled my heart.

Yet through all the clutter and walls that I myself erected round my heart, YOU still loved and saw me with Your Redeeming Eyes of Love.

You placed an angel on my path that saw right through my self-made walls. She looked at me with Your Redeeming Eyes of Love and led me straight to YOU.

I let YOU in and gave my heart to YOU; though I thought my heart was lost, YOU had it all along. I hold the key to let YOU in and YOU hold the key to make it new again.

My story is not over; a new path I needed to begin with roads paved with love and restoration created for me before time began.

Each road is hard and involves a process of tearing down my self-made walls. With each step I take and each road I walk a wall comes tumbling down.

Now, instead of walls around my heart the tree of life grows there. My heart was never lost to YOU and the love in YOUR Redeeming Eyes has replaced the heartache and pain with joy and fullness of life!