“How do you know Lolly loves you?” I asked five year old Thomas. When he and Amelia see me writing, they sometimes ask if I am writing a story about them. Often I am so I stop and read aloud their part or I promise to when it’s finished. So when I told Thomas that I had a question to ask him for my blog, he listened intently. Honestly his answers surprised me. The one thing he didn’t say surprised me as much as the ones he did. He never said he knows I love him because I tell him. I do say I love you often but this is not what really communicates my affection clearly to my eldest grandson. In his words, “You do lots of things for me. When you’re done with what you need to do, you promise me you will come play with me and you do. When you say you will come outside, you stay outside with me.” I immediately noticed a common thread. Thomas knows I love him by what I do with him and for him and he knows I keep my word. Want to know the best part? We have those very same assurances from God.
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’
All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet Isaiah.”
Matthew 1:22-23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.1.22-23.NLT
“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?
If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”
Romans 8:31-32 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.8.31-32.NLT
Since Titus was born, Thomas and I have been enjoying some deeper conversations. When he’s excited or frustrated and feeling the pressure of being good all day with a new baby at home, I remind him that we are both the oldest of three siblings now so we have things in common that only oldest children can understand. When I see the wheels turning behind his eyes, I pay close attention and try to figure out what he’s really thinking. He feels things deeply and he can sometimes be storm-tossed by his emotions. That, of course is true of all of us. It came with our fallen nature, the one we inherited from Adam. When Thomas is open to talking, I make a point to guide him to scripture. The Bible is filled with practical wisdom designed to aid in living a godly life in a fallen world. (II Peter 1:3) The one prerequisite for comprehending it is God’s indwelling Spirit. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) Thomas has not yet made his profession of faith but his heart is tender toward the things of Christ and he is learning to know God through His Word. It is only a matter of time before he responds to his Maker and begins to walk in genuine relationship with God in Jesus. What he now knows will belong to him by faith. As his mom’s favorite verse declares,
“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1.12.NLT
Since we are created in the image of God, we have an eternal spirit that will outlive our earthly bodies. We were each conceived in the mind of God long before our parents existed. Before God breathed life into Adam, He knew our sin and still He chose to awaken a people for His ultimate glory. He knew our many sins as he knows our thoughts and the number of hairs on our heads and still Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus is God saying I love you, I am for you, and I am with you forever.
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Romans 5:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.5.8.NLT
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”
Romans 5:6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.5.6.NLT
“And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”
Romans 5:9-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.5.9-11.NLT
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ.
And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.
And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.17-21.NLT
Every believer is an ambassador for Christ. God makes His appeal through us daily- through our words and actions, by our very lives- offering forgiveness and reconciliation. As I heard my daughter’s pastor preach, we are God’s messengers. Everything about the message is His. Our task is to accurately and adequately carry God’s message as we go.
“Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””
Matthew 28:18-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.28.18-20.NLT
“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place— what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—”
Psalms 8:3-6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.8.3-6.NLT
“You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up, you are still with me!”
Psalms 139:16-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.139.16-18.NLT
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?
Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35, 37-39 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.8.35-39.NLT
“For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse.
But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.
We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
We were given this hope when we were saved.
(If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.
But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)”
Romans 8:19-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.8.19-25.NLT
“For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.”
He is… God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says.
For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!”
And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”
2 Corinthians 1:19-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.1.20.NLT
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.
And the sea was also gone.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people!
He will live with them, and they will be his people.
God himself will be with them.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.
All these things are gone forever.”
And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”
And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”
And he also said, “It is finished!
I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End.
To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.
All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
Revelation 21:1-7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.21.1-7.NLT
“He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
Revelation 22:20 NLT
