{"id":23181,"date":"2013-07-07T10:53:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-07T08:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/?p=23181"},"modified":"2013-07-07T10:57:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-07T08:57:23","slug":"gods-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/story\/gods-love\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"God__s_love_and_glory_by_imrui\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One day, I woke early in the morning to watch the sunrise. <\/strong>
\nAh, the beauty of God’s creation is beyond description. <\/strong>
\nAs I watched, I praised God for His beautiful work. <\/strong>
\nAs I sat there, I felt the Lord’s presence with me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He asked me, “Do you love me?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I answered, “Of course, God! You are my Lord and Saviour!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then He asked, “If you were physically handicapped, would you still love me?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was perplexed. I looked down upon my arms, legs and the rest of my body and wondered how many things I wouldn’t; be able to do, the things that I took for granted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I answered, “It would be tough Lord, but I would still love You.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then the Lord said, “If you were blind, would you still love my creation?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

How could I love something without being able to see it? Then I thought of all the blind people in the world and how many of them still loved God and His creation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I answered, “Its hard to think of it, but I would still love you.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord then asked me, “If you were deaf, would you still listen to my word?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

How could I listen to anything being deaf? Then I understood. Listening to God’s Word is not merely using our ears, but our hearts. I answered, “It would be tough, but I would still listen to Your word.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord then asked, “If you were mute, would you still praise My Name?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

How could I praise without a voice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then it occurred to me: God wants us to sing from our very heart and soul. It never matters what we sound like. And praising God is not always with a song, but when we are persecuted, we give God praise with our words of thanks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I answered, “Though I could not physically sing, I would still praise Your Name.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

And the Lord asked, “Do you really love Me?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

With courage and a strong conviction, I answered boldly, “Yes Lord! I love You because You are the one and true God!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I thought I had answered well, but… God asked, “THEN WHY DO YOU SIN?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I answered, “Because I am only human. I am not perfect.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“THEN WHY IN TIMES OF PEACE DO YOU STRAY THE FURTHEST? WHY ONLY IN TIMES OF TROUBLE DO YOU PRAY THE EARNEST?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

No answers. Only tears.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord continued: “Why only sing at fellowships and retreats? Why seek Me only in times of worship? Why ask things so selfishly? Why ask things so unfaithfully?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tears continued to roll down my cheeks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Why are you ashamed of Me? Why are you not spreading <\/strong>
\nthe good news? Why in times of persecution, you cry to others when I offer My shoulder to cry on? Why make excuses when I give you opportunities to serve in My Name?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I tried to answer, but there was no answer to give.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“You are blessed with life. I made you not to throw this gift away. I have blessed you with talents to serve Me, but you continue to turn away. I have revealed My Word to you, but you do not gain in knowledge. I have spoken to you but your ears were closed. I have shown My blessings to you, but your eyes were turned away. I have sent you servants, but you sat idly by as they were pushed away. I have heard your prayers and I have answered them all.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“DO YOU TRULY LOVE ME ?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could not answer. How could I? I was embarrassed beyond belief. I had no excuse. What could I say to this? When I my heart had cried out and the tears had flowed, I said, “Please forgive me Lord. I am unworthy to be Your child.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord answered, “That is My Grace, My child.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked, “Then why do you continue to forgive me? Why do You love me so?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord answered, “Because you are My creation. You are my child. I will never abandon you. When you cry, I will have compassion and cry with you. When you shout with joy, I will laugh with you. When you are down, I will encourage you. When you fall, I will raise you up. When you are tired, I will carry you. I will be with you till the end of days, and I will love you forever.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Never had I cried so hard before. How could I have been so cold? How could I have hurt God as I had done? I asked God, “How much do You love me?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord stretched out His arms, and I saw His nail-pierced hands. I bowed down at the feet of Christ, my Saviour. And for the first time, I truly prayed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day, I woke early in the morning to watch the sunrise. Ah, the beauty of God’s creation is beyond description. As I watched, I praised God for His beautiful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23181"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23185,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23181\/revisions\/23185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}