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Does God still love you when you’ve failed him? Sometimes we think God’s love is like human love—and he’s ready to throw us under the bus when we’ve failed him. That’s because people often treat us that way—true? I asked Dάmaris Carbaugh about this: if a person who you know to be a Christ-follower just poured her heart out to you and told you of a significant failure in her life, how would you counsel her? This was her answer:
Dάmaris: I know that I’ve said this to people right at the altar in my church when they are sobbing, and they feel like “I don’t deserve to live.” I want to grab their face and say, “Look at me, I’m not making light of what you did, but listen to me carefully. What you did put Jesus Christ on the cross to forgive you. He shed his blood so that he might be able to wipe you clean. That thing that’s torturing you, He died for that.” Listen to me, in a sense when you don’t forgive yourself, you’re making less of what he did for you. So that precious blood, that’s the blood that not only says I forgive you, but I did something to wipe you clean so you don’t have to live in this guilt because it was bad–it was so bad that it put the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Receive that forgiveness. You need the Lord to help you do that, but I’m here to tell you that what you’ve done, he was punished for. You’re saying I deserve to be punished, when he was already punished for it. That’s why Paul said we need the power of God to understand how deep that love goes.
It’s so true – Jesus paid it all, as the old hymn goes. Your sin and mine has been fully covered by his death and resurrection, so we can bask in that truth, knowing that his love never fails.
That’s why I chose God’s Unfailing Love as the theme for our annual weekend getaway this year. And the more I’ve been thinking about it and writing about it, getting ready for the getaway, the more I realize that my understanding of God’s unfailing love is greater than my finite mind can comprehend. I think that’s why Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians that they could know this love that surpasses knowledge! It’s an oxymoron isn’t it – to know something that surpasses knowledge? (Ephesians 3:19). And that’s the way it is with God’s unfailing love—we know it but there’s so much more to know! And it’s worth the pursuit to keep digging deeper into the depth of God’s love.
If you would like to learn how to receive a copy of Dάmaris’s cd Walk With Me, click here.