Love Without Beginning or End

"In our making we had beginning; but the love wherein He made us was in Him from without beginning: in which love we have our beginning. And all this shall we see in God, without end."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 86)

God loves us with a love that has no beginning or end. We have always been safe in the heart of God. He had us in mind before He ever created anything, was already loving us and planning out a beautiful future for us, sharing life together with Him. He always meant to make His home in our hearts so we could be together in every way. His love has held us up through all we've been through, through all the troubles and mistakes, sufferings and sorrows, joys and triumphs. We have been held in His hands since forever and we will be held in His hands for forever. There has never been any doubt about whose family we belonged to or where we would end up. We have always been safe in His arms of love. Love was our beginning, our origin. We came forth from Love and are Love by nature. And Love is our destination, our home. Love is where we will always be. Love is what we will always experience in God. Love is the meaning. Love is the best thing there is. Our God is All-Love, and we are wrapped in God, in Eternal Love, now and for always! Let's think about it, talk about it, sing about it, tell others about it, live in it and share it with everyone - we are from God, who is Love, and we are going to always be in God, who is Love! Love has never failed us, and Love will never fail us. All will be Love forever and All shall be well!

"I'll never quit telling the story of your love - how you built the cosmos and guaranteed everything in it. Your love has always been our lives' foundation, your fidelity has been the roof over our world."

Psalm 89:2 (MSG)

"His love.... is so great that you will never see the end of it."

Ephesians 3:19 (TLB)

A Prayer: I praise You, God, for all You have shown me of Your love, even though I know I will spend all of eternity experiencing the depths of You love and yet never come to the end of it!  May all people know and experience Your love for them - I know You will bring that to pass. Thank You for loving us all and bringing us all home to You. Thank You for the peace of knowing that all shall be love in the end, and all shall be well! You are a beautiful God. You are truly All-Love and I love knowing and loving You!

In This Love

 "And in this love He hath done all His works; and in this love He hath made all things profitable to us; and in this love our life is everlasting."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 86)

Everything God says and purposes and does, all His relations with us, are marked by love and done in love. He just has no other way to be, for He IS love. So if it is not love, it is not God! Every interaction He ever has with us is in love. Every action He ever takes is in love. And this is not the kind of "love" that we sometimes think of Him having, where we imagine Him crushing, punishing or hurting us "for our own good." This is real love that does no harm, that only heals and helps and supports us. In this real love God makes all things work out for good for us, brings all things to be for our advantage and turns every sour note into a beautiful song of blessing for us. He even made the worst thing we ever did, killing His own Son, into the greatest blessing we could ever have, our eternal salvation in victory over sin and death, and our eternal life with God! This love just keeps bringing out everything to good. It just keeps winning over darkness and evil. It just keeps reigning in life and dissolving death. It keeps healing hearts and reconciling people to each other. It keeps building people up and cancelling their shame. It keeps on loving, for it lasts forever! God is this love, and He will always be who He is, our Father, Lover and Friend. What a wonderful life we have in Him who is pure love. It is better than we could ever hope for, and it will keep getting better, expanding into more beauty and joy, forever and ever! For in this love, in this God, our life is everlasting. We will live forever enjoying the love of our God!

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him."

1 John 4:9 (NLT)

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

"Let everyone thank God, for he is good....His tender love for us continues on forever!"

Psalm 136:1 (TPT)

A Prayer: Your love means everything to us! Thank You that all that You do is saturated with love!

His Love Never Slackens

"And I saw full surely that ere God made us He loved us; which love was never slacked, nor ever shall be. "

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 86)

Before we were ever created, we already existed in God's mind, in God's heart, in God's love. Before we were even made, we were already loved. This love has wrapped around us like a blanket every day of our lives. This love is always at the maximum amount, so we could not be loved any more than we already are loved by God, or any less. Nothing we have ever done, are doing or ever will do could ever keep God from loving us or lessen His love. His love accepts us as we are, values us as precious, delights in everything about us, hurts with us, has compassion on us, sticks with us when others don't, and supports us in every moment. We just can't be unloved. We just can't be unlovable. This love won't stop coming to us, it won't let us go. So we might as well agree with God that we are loved, and that we are lovable, to the maximum amount, always and forever. God loves us, and it is the most true and real and important fact of our lives.

"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 8:39 (NLT)

"In your generous love I am really living at last!"

Psalm 63:3 (MSG)

A Prayer: Thank You for wrapping me in Your love no matter what. I love You!

Love Was His Meaning

"Wouldst thou learn thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed it He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing without end. Thus was I learned that Love was our Lord's meaning." 

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 86)

Julian wanted to know what was the meaning of all Christ showed her. The answer she was given was that Love was His meaning. The meaning of it all is Love. Love is who God is. Love is all God does. Love is the meaning behind it all. Let's stay with Love and learn more of Love, and He will show us more and more Love without end! That is what it is all about. God is Love, nothing but Love. The meaning and purpose of our existence is Love, nothing but Love. The goal and fulfillment of all things is Love, nothing but Love. And that is all we will know without end!

"The most important of these things is love."

1 Corinthians 13;13 (EASY)

A Prayer: Thank You for Your Love!

His Heavenly Treasure

"For He beholdeth His heavenly treasure with so great love on earth that He willeth to give us more light and solace in heavenly joy, in drawing to Him of our hearts.."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 86)

We are a treasure to God. We are valuable, lovely, wanted, precious and amazing. And we are His heavenly treasure. We are born from above, born of the Spirit, new creations full of Christ's resurrection life. We are citizens of heaven. We are not from around here. We belong in heaven. God wants to give us more light and rest by giving us more and more heavenly joy, drawing us away from looking at the sorrow and trouble here on earth to the beauty of heavenly glory found in Him. He draws us to see, think and know as He knows, with heaven's perspective. We are not trying to get to heaven, for we are already there in Christ, since we were raised with Christ and co-seated with Him in the heavenly places. We are living from heaven. We are bringing heaven to earth at every moment that we live here on earth. And Christ is living and reigning through us, love is living and reigning through us, bringing the light and healing of God's love to everyone we meet. We are manifesting the life of Christ so that everyone can see that they are heavenly treasures that have Christ within them, too. Thus more and more grace will spread to all, with more and more love, for more and more joy and more and more peace! And heaven will keep coming to earth till love and life fully win out over all darkness and death!

"All things work for your enrichment so that more of God’s marvelous grace will spread to more and more people, resulting in an even greater increase of praise to God, bringing him even more glory!"

2 Corinthians 4:15 (TPT)

A Prayer: Thank You that Your love is spreading to more and more people and that all will be well!

All Brought Up Above

"When....we be all brought up above, then shall we clearly see in God the secret things which be now hid to us. Then ....we shall say all with one voice: Lord, blessed mayst thou be, for it is thus: it is well; and now see we verily that all-thing is done as it was then ordained before that anything was made."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 85)

We will all be brought up above to heaven. Not a single soul will be missing, not a single person forgotten. And all the things we could not understand on earth will be clear to us. We will be overwhelmed with the love of God and the beautiful plan He had and fully accomplished, notwithstanding all the wrong turns we may have made in our human history. God knew all about those things in advance and none of them were anywhere near strong enough to prevent His love plan from being carried out. He wanted a whole vast family of children, fully experiencing His love and living in union with Him, and He wanted to fully enter into the human experience through Christ and be one with us in every way, sharing life with us for always, full of peace, joy and love. Nothing will stop this plan. All wrongs will be made right. All hurts will be healed. All strife will be reconciled. All will be well. Love is stronger than anything, love overcomes any obstacle, love forgives any fault, love heals any wound, love never fails. Love wins! Through Christ's finished work the healing through love has already started and will surely be seen by every single person. Nothing will be lacking and noone will be missing. All will be new, all will be innocent, all will be restored. And all will be well, and we will shout and laugh and sing and praise God, saying, "Truly, all is well!"

"By the blood of his cross, everything in heaven and earth is brought back to himself—back to its original intent, restored to innocence again!" 

Colossians 1:20 (TPT)

"Because of God’s unfailing purpose, [his] detailed plan will reign supreme through every period of time until the fulfillment of all the ages finally reaches its climax—when God makes all things new  in all of heaven and earth through Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 1:10 (TPT)

"How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son."

Ephesians 1:3-6 (MSG)

A Prayer: Thank You for Your love that never fails to bring every last person home to You!

As We Have Been, We Will Always Be

"For as verily as we shall be in the bliss of God without end, Him praising and thanking, so verily we have been in the foresight of God, loved and known in His endless purpose from without beginning."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 85)

Just as we shall always be in God's presence and bliss for always, so we have always been in God's sight. As we have always been, so we shall always be: known and loved and delighted in. This was His whole purpose, to create children that would always be dearly beloved, beautiful and lovable, and enfolded in the family circle of the Trinity at all times. We will always be loved, and known, and delighted in, just as we have always been loved, and known, and delighted in, from forever to forever. Life on earth, the human experience, is just waking up to what is true, what has always been true, and what will always be true: we are the beloved children of God, living in His tender care. We are simply waking up to our authentic selves, waking up to who our Father is, waking up to the love that has always held us and always will. There has never been any doubt we would end up with God, for in His sight we have never left His presence. We have never been anything else but His good and lovely children, and we have never been anywhere else but His arms. We have always been home!

"I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)

"In love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe!"

Ephesians 1:4 (TPT)

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)

"Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny." 

Ephesians 1:11 (TPT)

A Prayer: Thank You for knowing me and cherishing me for always!

He Looks at Us and Rejoices

"And in this sight I marvelled highly. For notwithstanding our simple living and our blindness here, yet endlessly our courteous Lord beholdeth us in this working, rejoicing; and of all things, we may please Him best wisely and truly to believe, and to enjoy with Him and in Him."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 85)

God knew when He created us that we would make mistakes, forget Him, get confused, wander off sometimes, and have faults. He understood that we would be weak, blind and simple-minded. He knew every path we would take and every wrong turn we would make, all the messes and crashes we would experience, and yet He still made us, without hesitation! He wanted us, warts and all. What does this show us? It shows us that we don't have to be perfect. We don't have to be perfect to have a good attitude about ourselves. We don't have to be perfect to be loved. We don't have to be perfect to be accepted.  We don't have to be perfect to have a good relationship with God. God takes us as we are, right now, with our imperfections, and He rejoices in us! He doesn't just tolerate us or only bear with us in hopes that we will change. No, he delights in us. He totally embraces us and is proud of us and loves us just as we are, right now. For just as we are is beautiful to Him. Just as we are is fine. We never were required to be perfect and we never will be perfect in this life. So what? We are loved right here in the midst of this messy, crazy life, because this messy, crazy, imperfect life is really perfect and our imperfect selves are really perfect to Him just the way we are. He truly looks at us and rejoices; just being with us makes Him burst into a happy love song! The best thing we can do is believe it and enjoy our friendship with Him, enjoy being loved, and enjoy being ourselves!

He will rejoice over you with great gladness; he will love you and not accuse you. Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord himself exulting over you in happy song.

Zephaniah 3:17 (TLB)

"He delights in me."

Psalm 18:19 (TLB)

A Prayer: You are okay with me, so I can be okay with me!

Three Ways to Understand Love

"The light is Charity....I had three manners of understanding of this light, Charity. The first is Charity unmade; the second is Charity made; the third is Charity given. Charity unmade is God; Charity made is our soul in God; Charity given is virtue. And that is a precious gift of working in which we love God, for Himself; and ourselves, in God; and that which God loveth, for God."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 84)

The light that gives us life is sourced in God, our endless light. In fact, since God is love, this light is Charity, or Love. There are three kinds of love: love that is uncreated, love that is created, and love that is given. Another way to think about this is that God is uncreated Love, humans are created Love, and the giving of ourselves to others (which is God in us giving of Himself) is Love that is given. God is Love, never created but always there. He has always been and always will be love. He has always been and always will be loving us! We are created by God and from God, made of Love Himself. So we are Love in created form. We had a beginning. Our origin is God, is Love. It is our nature to love and we thrive and really live when we live in love. God is all about community. God is a community, Three in One, each one always pouring out in love to the others. And God created us to be part of this community, this circle of love. The Trinity created us within this loving community, within this family, and we are always being loved by the Trinity. The more we awaken to this love, this more the love within us flows out. We love God, we love ourselves as people in God, and we love others as people in God. It is really God loving in and through us, yet it is us, too. We are all together in this wonderful family of love, and love keeps pouring out to and from and amongst us all!

"In the same way I loved you, you love one another."

John 13;34 (MSG)

A Prayer: Thank You for creating us, Your children, to live in Your family of love!

Our Faith Is A Light

"Our faith is a light by nature coming of our endless Day, that is our Father, God....The light is cause of our life; the night is cause of our pain and of all our woe....We, with mercy and grace, steadfastly know and believe our light, going therein wisely and mightily. And at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened, and in clearness of light our sight shall be full: which light is God....Thus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night: which light is God, our endless Day."

How does faith occur? Faith happens when God persuades us of something that we can't see with our natural eyes. He gives us His sight, spiritual sight, to know eternal, unseen reality. Sin is to "not see" spiritual reality, to be blind or in the dark to it. What spiritual reality are we often in the dark about? We don't know God is with us and God loves us. We look around at the natural world and the way things work down here and we think God must work in the same way. We think He must stay distant until we have proved ourselves to Him or earned the right to be in His favor or presence. The world works by "there's no free lunch." Everything has to be earned, which is operating by law or performance. But spiritual reality is totally different, for God works by love and grace. We need to be en-light-ened or to have light in our understanding to see spiritual reality. The light we need is God's light. He is the source of our spiritual sight, or faith. For faith is simply being convinced of something you cannot see with your natural eyes. It is spiritually seeing, seeing unseen reality or God's reality with our inner eyes of the heart or spirit. God gives us this inner light. He doesn't want His beloved human family to be in the dark in their understanding. He shines the light of His love and grace into our lives and persuades us of true reality, spiritual reality: God is with us and even in us at all times, and we are His children, loved and accepted unconditionally apart from any performance on our part. 

Being in the dark about God's love and presence in our lives, about our identity with Him, brings so much sorrow, struggle, loneliness, confusion and pain to our lives. When people feel unloved, they have such a big void inside and can seek to fill it and stop the pain of feeling unlovable with all kinds of hurtful things. But when we find out God loves and holds us and we are actually His dear children who belong and are accepted always, it makes us come alive, heals our heart, and lets us become aware of and enjoy that love that has always been there for us, that God and Father who has always been there for us! God is in the enlightening and persuading business. He won't stop showing us His love till He has convinced us it is true: we really are loved no matter what, just as we are, by our heavenly Dad. 

The biggest persuasion God ever brought us was to become flesh and appear before us as God in a human body, to show us exactly what God is like and who we are to Him! In Christ we see that we have a Father who loves us so much He can't bear to have us estranged from Him or in the dark about His love and presence. Christ clears up the confusion about who God is, showing us He is not an angry judge but a loving Dad. We start to see our value and worth to God and how special we are to Him, and how He loves us no matter what, even if we lash out in anger and hurt towards Him. Christ is here even now in His Spirit, persuading us of God's love for us and our preciousness to Him. This is the light by which we see, the light of true reality that dissolves the darkness and melts away our sorrow and hurt. Isn't God good? He doesn't even expect us to "work up" faith on our own, but instead gives us His own spiritual sight to see what He sees when He looks at us. The light turns out to be Christ, to be God Himself smiling at us through Jesus' human face. For we see in Christ's eyes only love and compassion, forgiveness and understanding, tenderness and acceptance. We see in Christ the Father's unconditional love for us all! And things keep getting brighter and brighter, and we keep seeing more and more of His love and kindness towards us, till one day our faith will be sight. And then we will know even as we are known, and all will be love and all will be well!

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 83)

"For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light."

Psam 36:9 (NKJV)

"God said, 'Light up the darkness!' and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful."

2 Corinthians 4:6 (MSG)

"I pray that your thoughts will be flooded with light and inspired insight; that you will clearly picture his intent in identifying you in him so that you may know how precious you are to him."

Ephesians 1:18 (MIRROR)

"And they shall see his face; and his name shall be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will be their light; and they shall reign forever and ever."

Revelation 22:4 (TLB)

A Prayer: You are the light that gives me spiritual sight. You are the one who persuades me of truth. Thank You for opening my eyes to Your love, and to Your reality of grace!

God Is Light

"In light is endless Nature-hood."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 83)

The third property of God's being that Julian sees is that God is light. As light is pure and has no darkness, so God's nature or character is pure and has no darkness. His nature is only one way. He is not partly good and partly bad; He is all good. He is not partly love and partly hatred; He is all love. He is not partly kind and partly unkind; He is all kind. He is not partly patient and partly impatient; He is all patient. He is not party loyal and partly disloyal; He is all loyal. He is all light, all goodness, all love, all grace, all the way through, with no speck of darkness. This is such a relief and lets us know we can truly depend on God. For He is not going to change in the way He treats us. He is not erratic or unpredictable. He is not two-faced or having a double personality, sometimes kind and sometimes wrathful. He is light. There is no darkness in Him. He is full to the brim of only goodness and love. That is His nature, and it's a pure nature. It is pure love, pure goodness, pure kindness. We sometimes think of holiness when we think of light or purity, and we may think God is so holy that sometimes He is angry, punishing or rejecting of us, as if His holiness means that He rejects those who don't act holy. But God's holiness is the purity of love. His holiness simply means He is wholly love, the perfection of love with no impurities, that is, no anger, hatred, rejection, judgment or punishment in it! This can also be said of God's power; His power or might is the power of love. It is not that He is so powerful He may destroy us. It is that His love is so powerful He will protect us, keep us, hold us, and make us safe forever. God is light. He is purely one way, wholly one way, and it is the way of love. This is His endless nature, the nature we came forth from, and the nature we can rest in forever!

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

1 John 1:5 (KJV)

"But whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, the Creator of all light, and he shines forever without change or shadow."

James 1:17 (TLB)

A Prayer: Thank You for being light, all one way, all one love!

God Is Love

"In love is gentle courtesy.."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 83)

Another of the three properties of God's being is that God is love. What a simple theology it is to know that God is love and base all our thoughts about God, ourselves and others on this all-embracing truth. God is love, so He is never un-love. If the most loving person you know would not act in a certain way, then surely God, who is far more loving and is even Love itself, would not act that way. God is love. He can't be any other way. He can't be anger, or hatred, or meanness, or hurtfulness, or rejection or condemnation. He is love. He is only kindness, and sweetness, and gentleness, and friendship, and tenderness, and understanding.

God is love. That means even though He is strong, and wise, and glorious, and regal, He shows us courtesy and is very attentive to all our needs, coming to us in other-centered kindness, care, vulnerability and humble support. He is so great and yet He gently and tenderly holds us and listens to us and encourages us. His first thought is for us and our welfare, not for Himself and His "glory." He is generous, always pouring Himself out in love, to the point of self-sacrifice. He is a humble caretaker, a gentle shepherd, a loyal friend, a doting spouse, a tender-hearted mother, a caring father. He would do anything to help us, He always meets all our needs, He never leaves us alone, He is always supportive, and He would truly rather die than be without us. He is the definition of real love. He is everything we need Him to be and so we have come to know and trust the love God has for us. He is the love that is "much more" than we can comprehend. He is beyond our greatest imaginings, a love we have only ever dreamed of and yet have needed all our lives. We mean the world to Him and He means the world to us. Being in union with Him is what life is all about and gives us the greatest satisfaction, joy, peace, strength and companionship we could ever want. How wonderful to know that God is love!

"So we have come to know and trust the love God has for us. God is love."

1 John 4:16 (PHP)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3:16 (KJV)

A Prayer: I want to know and trust Your love more and more. Show me over and over again how much You love me!

God Is Life

"In life is marvellous homeliness."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 83)

Julian saw three properties in God, Life, Love, and Light. In scripture we see statements describing God's being as these three things. It is all one goodness, seen in three ways, the goodness of life, the goodness of love, and the goodness of light.

God is Life. God cannot be or have anything to do with corruption, lack, sickness, or death. All those relate to or are going toward non-life, and God is life. This means that God does not bring any of those things about in our lives. God does not bring death, He raises from death. God does not bring sickness, He heals from sickness. God does not cause lack, He provides so every lack is filled. God does not bring corruption, He brings fullness. He is always bringing life, life and more life. He brings the places in us that have withered or died back to life, gently nourishing us and invigorating us with His strength. Christ has even raised us up into His own resurrection life in the heavens, and we are with Him in life always. This life is a life of union and closeness, a life of homeliness or feeling at home with each other, a life of coziness and embrace. This life is a life of safety and security, free from all sickness, pain, sorrow and dying. For this life of Christ is our true home, where we come from and where we belong. We are in life and we are never going out! All that waits for us in the future is life and life more abundantly. For His life has already conquered death for us and we will live with Him forever, enjoying and knowing Him. For to know Him is truly eternal life!

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.'"

John 11:25  (NKJV)

"I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand."

John 10:28 (NIV)

A Prayer: You are life to me. I am alive in Your indestructible, overcoming, abundant life!

We Never Fall

"For in the Beholding of God we fall not, and in the beholding of self we stand not....But the Beholding of our Lord God is the highest soothness (truth)."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 82)

We can look at our lives and see many mistakes and faults, many times that we fall. We can certainly say that according to us, in truth we often fall. Yet according to God we do not fall! This seems counter to what we experience in our visible lives. Yet God's perspective is obviously to be taken as superior and yielded to as the highest truth, the "truly true" truth. 

There are many ways to look at this truth of God, that we do not fall. We can hear God saying to us, "You are always My innocent little children who don't know what you're doing, so to Me you never fall. I see all the hurts and delusions that lead you to act out, so I say you never fall. I see how you can get enslaved in behaviors and end up doing things you really don't want to do, and therefore you never fall. I can see that you are weak and frail and need help and that Christ fills up every area of weakness or lack so you are full and complete, so you never fall. I can see that you sometimes forget who you are and act as who you are not so much so that it is a false persona doing those wrong things, so I say you never fall. I can see the real person you are in spirit that is always one with Me and aligned with Me, and I see you never fall. I can see that you have felt so ashamed of any mistakes and so Jesus came and took all that sin and guilt away and made you continually sin-free, and so you never fall. And I can see you feel unclean, but you are the temple and dwelling of Christ which is always holy, so I say you never fall. I can see you often feel unworthy, bad or not enough, and Christ is in union with you filling you with His righteousness and perfection, so you never fall. And no matter what you do it doesn't change My love or closeness to you and you never can fall out of My favor, so you never fall!" 

In whatever way we look at it, God says we never fall. What does this mean? It means we never fall! We are upheld in innocence, in understanding, in righteousness, in grace, in peace, in union, in favor, in completeness, in love. We simply cannot fall from this secure place of being in His arms, one with Christ and hidden with Christ in God. We cannot fall from this relationship of love, of acceptance, of unity, of peace, of belonging, of completeness. We cannot fall from union with Christ and all He is, cannot fall from His perfection, His holiness, His righteousness, His sufficiency. We cannot fall out of our new birth or new creation, cannot fall out of His life, His victory, His overcoming, His strength. We cannot fall from our place in Him, seated with Christ in heaven, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and reigning with Him over all struggle and darkness. No matter what we see with our eyes or what our behavior may look like, the truth from God is this: We never fall out of His reality, His presence, His truth, His keeping, His love.  We are in God's hand and nothing can snatch us out. We never fall!

"Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glory without fault and with unspeakable joy, to the only God, our saviour, be glory and majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before time was, now, and in all ages to come, amen."

Jude 1:24 (PHP)

"He shall stand and be upheld, for the Master (the Lord) is mighty to support him and make him stand."

Romans 14:4 (AMPC)

"He made us perfectly holy and complete for all time!"

Hebrews 10:14 (TPT)

"With God on our side like this, how can we lose?"

Romans 8:31 (MSG)

A Prayer: According to You, I do not fall. Help me believe it!

Kept in His Love

"If any such lover be in earth which is continually kept from falling, I know it not: for it was not shewed me. But this was shewed: that in falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 82) 

Children sometimes do well and sometimes fail. They sometimes show love and sometimes fall into negativity towards others. But they are always loved by their parents. They are always part of the family They always belong. They are always special and valued and cared for. Their identity as children of those parents never changes, no matter what they do. They are held in their parents' love always. That love is a constant. 

So it is with us in God's kingdom of love. We are the family of God, children that are beloved and precious. We belong. We are always part of the family. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail, but our identity as God's beloved children never changes. We are always special and valued and cared for. God our Father has a love for us that is permanent, and we are held and kept in that steadfast love. We can relax and feel safe, because we truly are safe. We are safe in the love of God.

"Family fondness remains the essence of this kingdom."

Hebrews 13:1 (MIRROR)

"Our triumph remains beyond dispute. His love has placed us beyond the reach of any onslaught."

Romans 8:37 (MIRROR)

A Prayer: Thank You for holding me up in Your love, no matter what!

Loved in the Midst of Our Imperfections

"'Be not greatly aggrieved with sin that falleth to thee against thy will'. And here I understood that....the Lord beholdeth the servant with pity and not with blame. For this passing life asketh not to live all without...sin."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 82)

We don't need to be upset or demoralized when we fail and do the things we don't want to do. And that is one important thing: we don't want to sin. We can certainly be tempted and fall into sin, and we can certainly choose hurtful ways perhaps due to being hurt ourselves or not understanding how much God loves us, but deep down we don't want to sin. We want to do right and be a good person in our lifestyle. Sin comes to us, then, against our will, that inner good and godly will that our Creator put in us when He made us, that image of God in us, that wonderful Christ in us as the ground of our whole being. So we can see that we can fall and stumble in this life, but we don't let it get us down, we don't let any condemnation or shame stick to us. God doesn't condemn us, so we won't condemn ourselves either! God doesn't look on us with blame or criticism, so we won't blame and criticize ourselves either. God treats us with love and compassion, so we will treat ourselves with love and compassion. And we can pass that compassion on to those around us, who are also perfectly loved by God in the midst of their sometimes failing behavior. This is the successful and full Christian life - not to always behave perfectly, but to be able to receive God's love in the midst of our sometimes failing behavior, and to be able to extend that same love to ourselves and to others. 

What a relief to find that we are not required to behave perfectly in our lives! We are not expected to meet some impossible standard of perfection and have all our thoughts, words and deeds be absolutely without mistake. No human could live up to that standard. Only Christ Jesus the One who is both human and divine was able to live up to the perfect standard! He was perfectly obedient to God in all He did and fulfilled the perfect standard, then He set it aside as obsolete and showed us a new way to live, the way God always intended: a love-based way rather than a rule-based way. We can enjoy a wonderful love-based relationship with God even in the midst of our mistakes and flaws. The pressure is off. We are completely accepted and loved just as we are. We are loved whether we behave well or badly, loved whether we improve in our various areas of weakness and loved even if those areas never see improvement. We are taken off the performance scale for good. We are simply enjoying God's love for free, with no strings attached and no requirements or stipulations added. In the midst of such acceptance and unconditional love, we find ourselves relaxing. We find ourselves feeling happy and light and free. We find ourselves feeling strong and confident. We find ourselves being more understanding and kind to ourselves and others. Without even trying, we find that love fills us and flows from us. We are actually being our true self, who we have always been deep down - a human living in union with God! How does it happen? Not by trying to keep the rules or change in our own strength. We know the end of that story, and it isn't pretty. This new way is all love. We are able to be the true, kind, good and loving people we always were simply by being loved with no conditions! 

Isn't the love way of God so wonderful! We will be transformed by love. It's inevitable. There will always be times where we slip up and fail, and that's ok. Something is different now. Now we don't have to take on shame and condemnation for those things. Now we can leave them with God. Our behavior is His responsibility and He will take care of it, whether in the short term or the long term. But the main issue is not change at all. It is simply love. If we never were transformed, we would still be loved. We would still be fine with God. We would still be God's beloved and valued children. It really is all about love!

"For you who welcome him, in whom he dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms."

Romans 8:10 (MSG)

"In your generous love I am really living at last!"

Psalm 63:3 (MSG)

A Prayer: Your love is the best thing in the world!

The Place Where He Dwells

"Marvellous and stately is the place where the Lord dwelleth, and therefore He willeth that we readily answer to (pay attention to) His gracious touching, more rejoicing in His whole love than sorrowing in our often fallings. For it is the most worship to Him of anything that we may do, that we live gladly and merrily, for His love.

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 81)

We want to worship and please Him. We want to honor and follow Him. And the thing that gives Him the most honor and praise, the most joy and pleases Him most, is to live happily because we know He loves us. Love is the all-important thing He wants us to focus on,  relax in and rejoice in. He doesn't want us to pay attention to our failures and be sad. He wants us to pay attention to His loving embrace and be happy! He is always touching us with His love, turning our eyes to see His eyes that look on us with love. He is always drawing our attention to Love! We can think He is looking at our sins, wanting us to improve, focusing on behavior. But Christ is just focusing on loving us. He knows we are frail humans. He knows we make mistakes. And it doesn't matter. Isn't it wonderful that the place He chooses for His home is inside our hearts? His favorite place is inside of us, and He loves dwelling there. He loves being in us and is at home in us, even with all our faults, weaknesses and imperfections. Instead of saying He is too holy to be around us humans who have mistakes and sins, He is proud and delighted to dwell in us, with those mistakes and sins. In fact, the place where He dwell is holy and is called His temple, and thus we are holy and His temple, not because we always have perfect behavior, but because the perfect and holy One lives in us, and He loves living in us.

We don't have to be perfect. That is His job! For we are vessels that contain Life, the life of God! It is the Life that is to be perfect, and do all the right things, and live perfectly. and that is what Christ, the Life inside of us, will do and is doing! Our job is to relax, rest, and be happy because we are loved! We are not far from God or separated from God or too messed up to have God near us. God is in us, accepting us as we are. God is in us, seeing the beauty of our human person beyond all the mistakes. God is in us, happy to be with us. God is in us, loving us. God is in us, filling up all our empty places with His gentle presence. We are full of God. We are full of love. And that love is coming out without our effort. We can live gladly because we are loved. That is our job: to be loved!

"Do you not discern and understand that you....are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you]?"

1 Corinthians 3:16 (AMPC)

"Nothing can stop God from loving us."

Romans 8:38 (EASY)

A Prayer: I thought I had to be perfect for You to be happy to be with me. But You showed me You are happy to be with me right now, as I am, with my imperfections. Thank You for that wonderful love and acceptance. 

He Shields Us from Blame

"His Goodness suffereth us never to be alone, but lastingly He is with us, and tenderly He excuseth us, and ever shieldeth us from blame.."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 80)

We can worry and fret over our failures and be haunted by shame and feelings of unworthiness. But God does not see us as unworthy or shameful or even sinful. God sees us for who we really are, not who lying voices of accusation or condemnation may say we are. God sees our true nature and sees that we are simply humans, the humans that He made in His own image and called "very good." That designation has never changed. It isn't that Christ had to come and change who we inherently are as humans. There was nothing ever wrong with our makeup or design as human beings. Christ came to remove the veil over our eyes that prevented us from seeing our true beauty and goodness and worth as God's creation, as children of God. This veil over our eyes was a veil of delusion and lies, lies that told us we were inferior, shameful, not like God, unworthy, lacking, alienated from God, rejected, or sinful. These lies also told us that God was angry with us, disappointed with us, judging or condemning us, and punishing us. Christ removed the lies or veil by showing us the true character of God - that He is good and loving -  and also how God truly feels about humanity - that we are good and lovely!

Christ not only died and rose for us, taking us with Him through death to all the lies and delusion and their effects, and up into His resurrected and heavenly life, but He also stays within us through His Spirit every single day, empowering us and reminding us of the truth. The Spirit of truth is in us, always calling to our minds the truth about God being all love and the truth about us being God's beloved children. The Holy Spirit never leaves us alone, so even when we forget about the Spirit's presence or get confused by lies and trapped in sin, the Spirit stays right there with us, reminding us of our union with Christ and our eternal and unbreakable communion with Him. The Holy Spirit always excuses us, just as Jesus did on the cross, saying we don't know what we are doing when we fail. And the Spirit always shields us from blame. The old lying voices that accuse us, tell us we are unworthy, try to shame and blame us, and tell us we are awful and pathetic, those lying voices are no match for the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit continually works to defend us against those voices, to block those lies and shield our hearts from them, by continually telling us the truth: we are one with God, loved by God, good and lovable children of God, and worth being around. The Holy Spirit is not criticizing us, judging us, pointing out our faults, or condemning us; the Holy Spirit is shielding us and protecting us from judgment and condemnation, shielding us from the lie that we would ever be shameful or unworthy of love! Our mistakes do not make us awful, sinful, unworthy or shameful. Our mistakes simply mean we are human. We are perfectly imperfect and that is okay. God loves us and doesn't demand perfection, just like no good parent would demand that of a child. God wants us to know that we are His beautifully designed children, worthy of love, honored and precious, made with a good nature, accepted and enbraced. God is a good Parent, who points out the best in His children and shields them from harmful lies!

“When that one I have spoken to you about comes—the Spirit of truth—he will guide you into everything that is true....He will bring glory to me for he will draw on my truth and reveal it to you. Whatever the Father possesses is also mine; that is why I tell you that he will draw on my truth and will show it to you."

John 16;13-15 (PHP)

A Prayer: Thank You, Holy Spirit, for reminding me of the truth and dispelling all lies!

Only For Us

"Only for us He is here.."

Julian of Norwich (ch. 80)

Why did He come? Why did He go through the pain and suffering of the cross to save us? Why is He here working? It was all for us, it is all for us. We are the pearl of great price that He gave everything to get. Whether the younger prodigal or the older legalist, we are the beloved child that He longed for and invited to celebrate with Him. We are the ones that are at the center of His thoughts, the center of His plans and works, the center of His heart. We are the ones He is here for right now. He is always there, filling every day with His love. He is supporting us whether we realize it or not. In our failures, He is picking us up and affirming the good in us, reminding us of His love and support. In our times of need, He is supplying more than enough and being more than enough for whatever comes our way. In the times of doubt, frustration, loneliness, anger or struggle, He is upholding us and carrying us, never letting us down, never letting us go. I am the reason, you are the reason, that He is doing all that He is doing. He simply wants to love us, to give us the best, to see us enjoy life, to see us enjoy His presence. This is how we were meant to live, never alone but always in union with Him. Relationship with Him gives a fullness to life that nothing else can. That is what it is all about, and that is what He is all about!

"Everything he accomplishes is inspired by the energy and intent of his affection [for us]."

Ephesians 1:11 (MIRROR)

"We celebrate him who supercharges us powerfully from within. Our biggest request or most amazing dream cannot match the extravagant proportion of his thoughts towards us."

Ephesians 3:20 (MIRROR)

A Prayer: You are always with me, filling me up with Yourself.

The Highest and Lowest One Does All

"For Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest, and doeth all."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 80)

He is the highest, so glorious He is exalted to the highest heaven, yet He is also the lowest, taking the form and position of a servant here on earth in order to save humanity. He is the greatest and most  outstanding, far surpassing all other things, yet He is also nearest to us, closer than any other, intimate and familiar with us as a closest friend. He is the mightiest of all, full of strength and beyond an other power, yet He is also the meekest, humbly working behind the scenes of our lives whether we recognize Him or not. He is so amazing, so great, so wonderful, so high and mighty and wise, yet He is also so loving, so kind, so near, so gentle, so humble, so sweet. What a wonderful God we have. We have nothing to fear from this God, for the One who is so mighty and powerful, so great and magnificent, is our Daddy, and we are His beloved children. We don't have to worry about a thing. If the children have any needs, it is the father's responsibility to meet them. If the children get into trouble or danger, it is the father's responsibility to get them out. If the children are distraught or hurt, it is the father's responsibility to help and comfort them. Our Father would do anything for us, and He has. He does it all, all that we need for life and communion with Him, and being able to live a life of meaning, joy, peace, and love. He brings us to a life of belonging, acceptance, affirmation, creativity, and fulfillment. He takes care of His children completely and without fail. Nothing is too hard for the mightiest One, the wisest One, the most loving One of all, and He does it all, all for our creation, all for our life, all for our salvation, all for our eternity. It is His pleasure to give us His whole kingdom. What an inheritance our Father has provided for us. He has thought of everything. It is a perfect salvation and a perfect inheritance, a perfect and eternal life with Him!

"God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom."

Luke 12:32 (VOICE)

A Prayer: Thank You, Father, for doing it all for me so I don't have to worry about a thing.

Every Single Soul Matters

"And this shall He do as long as any soul is in earth that shall come to heaven,—and so far forth that if there were no such soul but one, He should be withal alone till He had brought him up to His bliss."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 80)

The Good Shepherd, Jesus, watches over every single sheep. The safety and care of each and every one of them is His responsibility. He will make sure each of us, the sheep under His care, are taken care of and get safely home. If there was only one little sheep still wandering around in confusion in this life needing His help, He would still do all the work of salvation for that one, and be there for that one till they were safely home in His arms. That's how important we are to Him. There are billions of people on this planet. That is a very big flock our Good Shepherd has! Yet He truly cares for each one of us as if we are the only one needing help. We are each His personal concern, His beloved, His precious one. He knows everything about us and is with us every moment. He has taken care of every one of us lost little sheep! Each of us can know we will be safe with Him forever.

"Then Jesus told them this parable: 'Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'"

Luke 15:3-6 (NIV)

A Prayer: Thank You for showing me how important and precious I am to You!

Christ Alone

"Christ alone did all the works that belong to our salvation, and none but He; and right so He alone doeth now the last end: that is to say, He dwelleth here with us, and ruleth us and governeth us in this living, and bringeth us to His bliss."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 80)

God has always been for us. He has always been on our side, working for our good and help. It has been Him all along. He has full responsibility for us, His created children, and He takes care of us. We did not have to rescue or save ourselves when we got into trouble with sin and death. Our God came to earth robed in human flesh and rescued us Himself. All we did was wander off in our minds and get lost from Him. He, the Good Shepherd, took full responsibility for the sheep and came and rescued us. And He is still the One that is taking care of us. He is always there, behind the scenes, in the background of our lives, moving and working for our good, saving us, helping us, upholding us, drawing us to Him, drawing us home. He's reigning in our souls. That means He, the One who Loves us the most, is in ultimate charge of our safety and care, and that He, our dearest Friend and Strongest Ally, has the final say on our lives, not sin or pain or doubt or darkness or shame or loss or even death! He will make sure everything works out for the best. He will make sure we get safely home.

We were never facing things alone. We were never having to do everything in our strength and with our limited resources. We have always had Christ, with His infinite supply, taking care of us.  He has always been all the sufficiency and completeness we've needed, no matter what the situation. No matter what our need, He meets it. No matter what our weakness, He fills up all that lacks so there is fullness every time. This salvation isn't a barely adequate rescue. It's an abundant salvation that gives more than enough. We have more than enough righteousness, beauty, acceptance, peace, joy and life coming from Him right now. We have Him, so we have all we need and so much more. He alone has done this work of saving us, getting rid of sin and darkness and death and making things whole and free and light. He alone has done this work of removing all that was blocking us in our minds from receiving His love and knowing oneness in relationship with the Father. Our efforts weren't required or necessary. We can relax and rest. We are safe with Him forever.

"Immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah."

Ephesians 2:4-6 (MSG)

"God's glory is all around me! His wraparound presence is all I need, for the Lord is my Savior, my hero, and my life-giving strength."

Psalm 62:7 (TPT)

"Everything I need comes from him."

Psalm 62:2 (MSG)

A Prayer: Thank You for taking care of my every need. Thank You that You don't require my sufficiency but instead You provide Your sufficiency!

The Blessed Showing of Love Brings Comfort and Joy

"Also our courteous Lord in the same time He shewed full surely and mightily the endlessness and the unchangeability of His love; and, afterward, that by His great goodness and His grace inwardly keeping, the love of Him and our soul shall never be disparted in two, without end....In the blessed Shewing of Love I have matter of true comfort and of joy that saveth me from despair. All this homely Shewing of our courteous Lord, it is a lovely lesson and a sweet, gracious teaching of Himself in comforting of our soul. For He willeth that we [should] know by the sweetness and homely loving of Him, that all that we see or feel, within or without, that is contrary to this is of the enemy and not of God." 

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 79)

The revelation Jesus gave to Julian was of the love of God. The revelation was that this love never changes no matter what our behavior, and that nothing can ever sever our love relationship with God. What a relief to know we are always loved, that we will never be rejected, that our relationship with God cannot be broken by anything. This is the message of unconditional love and everlasting security. This is the message of grace and acceptance and loyalty. This is the revelation that gives us unending joy and comfort and saves us from despair, because we know this relationship we have with God does not depend on us and our weak faith, behaviors or attitudes. It depends wholly on God, and He is love. He won't fail. Love never fails! We find in this message that God is the love we always dreamed of knowing. We find He is all love without a trace of hatred, judgment, wrath or rejection. We find that we are beloved children that have always belonged and will always belong. We find that we are safe forevermore and there is nowhere to be but in His arms. This sweet and gracious good news comforts our soul like no other! God wants us to know that this is the truth, love is the truth, love that won't let us go, love that will always save us, keep us, help us, and be there with us. Any other voice telling us a message of judgment, anger, fear, punishment or wrath just isn't the truth and is to be let go of. Any thought or feeling we have of condemnation, shame, terror, inferiority, unloveliness, alienation or rejection is also a lie and to be discarded as not from God at all. The only voice that matters is God's voice, telling us we are the beloved of God, we are accepted just as we are, and we are held in His arms forever and never shall be separated from Him!

"And we know that the Son of God has made our understanding come alive so that we can know by experience the One who is true. And we are in him who is true, God’s Son, Jesus Christ—the true God and eternal life!"

1 John 5:20 (TPT)

A Prayer: Thank You for revealing Your love to me! Thank You for the assurance it brings to know that Your love will never let go of me but will hold me close to You forever!

Oned in Love

"I that am the least and lowest that shall be saved, I may be comforted with him that is highest: so hath our Lord oned us in charity (love)."

Julian of Norwich (Ch. 78)

In Christ we are all absolutely equal. Noone is better or worse than another. Noone is higher or lower than another. Noone is superior or inferior to another. All these distinctions have to do with living under law, where we are measured by our performance and tend to judge and compare ourselves with others. Living under law is trying to measure up to a perfect standard, and noone can measure up.  But Jesus shows us God's way is grace! He has brought us up with Him into a whole new creation. It is a life under grace, not law, a life of love, not judgment. In this new creation, under grace, we are not judged by our behavior. We are simply given the free gift of perfect love, acceptance and righteousness, given the free gift of Christ Himself. We are loved for free. We are all equally loved, all equally important and precious, all equally right with God. We are all equally full of Christ's life. Christ has oned or united us all in love. Labels or distinctions that separate or divide people into categories like better and worse, more important and less important, don't apply here. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for racial and cultural and political differences disappear here. There is no difference between poor and rich, good and bad, male and female, strong and weak, for we are all the same before Him. We are all equally loved and we are all equally filled with Love Himself! We need never put ourselves down or think we are less than another, have less blessing than another, or have less of God than another. We all have all of God's fullness and blessing through Christ living within us all. 

Knowing we are equally valued, accepted and loved, we can relax and feel valued, accepted and loved, and we can enjoy the freedom of valuing, accepting and loving each other. When there is no competition, we can cooperate with everyone. When there is no judgment, we can accept everyone. When there is no exclusion, we can include everyone! When there is only love, hatred, division, anger and selfishness dissolve away! We are all one in Christ, one in the Love that breaks down every barrier and division and unites all in His embrace!

"In Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female. You are all the same [or united; one] in Christ Jesus."

Galatians 3:28 (EXB)

"From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ."

Colossians 3:12 (MSG)

A Prayer: Thank You that I don't have to compare myself to others or feel inferior. Thank You that I am just as loved, valued, and accepted by You as any other person is!