JMD Devotional 246 Ephesians 2:4,5 Most Passionate

But God--so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation).

I once went down a path of intense rebellion. Bitter over believing I had always sacrificed for others for nothing; feeling taken for granted, driven by my own lust for excitement and craving for attention, to have a sense of being special to someone else; all this sent me down a path that very nearly destroyed everything good in my life. I was blind to the truth. I was in fact sacrificing for the most worthy people on the planet; my family. I was not insignificant; my role was vital. I had the earnest, intense, loving devotion of an Almighty God; but I had lost the sense of that personal relationship. I was addicted to most powerful drugs: sex and fantasy; and it would take something much more powerful to break its hold upon my life. After years of white-knuckling and sheer will power I was through with false living; and I thought my rebellion was leading me to authenticity; but it was a mirage. At the point of decision, where life and death, holiness and debasement were face-to-face with me; I had to believe something that seemed impossible, another ‘fantasy’, a ‘fairy tale’ in which God loved me more than any other human being ever could; that He would come to live in me in a way more intimate than the sex I craved; that Jesus was so passionate for my soul that He suffered greatly to secure it for Himself. I had to believe that this was not just a creed, or a long-distance relationship, or a one-sided affair: either God was setting up home in me in earnest, bringing His life into my veins or we would have nothing further to do with each other. Praise God I let Him conquer me!

Dear God,
I was lost and blind, poor and bleeding when You came and had mercy on me. I had to take by faith that Your love was THE LOVE for which my soul craved; and that You would give it to me without measure. May my love for You be as intense and unwavering; may my passion for God be without parallel. Thank You for believing our relationship could work when there was no practical evidence on my side that it would succeed. You sacrificed so much for this long-shot!
I am so blessed to be Your’s. Thank You for satisfying my longing.
Amen

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**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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