Because He loves you

"Why? Because He loves you. Because He loves you, that’s why. We’ve got this weird compartmentalization thing that happens where you don’t think that God sees all that you are, or that if He could, if He somehow knew who you were gonna be, He wouldn’t have gone to the cross. Um, listen: God knew you were going to be messy, Christ knew that you were going to be messy. God knows that you are going to screw up often, He knows that you’re drawn to things that are wicked. That’s what the cross is all about! That’s the whole point of the cross, is that you’re going to fail and you’re going to stumble, and you’re gonna feel dirty and you’re gonna feel awkward. The whole point of the cross of Christ is there be this mighty picture of His love and pursuit of you despite you. So the cross is necessary because of you. But it’s also the picture we have of just how far God is willing to go because He loves you.” –Matt Chandler

This quote gets me every time. This first time I heard was when I was listening to a video on youtube comprised of my favorite song (How He Loves) and excerpts from sermons by Matt Chandler and John Piper. The video link will be at the end of this post (GO watch it!)

Anyways, back to the quote. It is such a powerful message about just how far God is willing to go for you. I think a lot of the times we tend to forget just how much He did for us. At least I know that I do. I think we get too wrapped up in the fact that God loves us no matter what we do in life, but we forget that we are forgiven because Jesus died on the cross for US. It kind of becomes secondhand nature for us to just go on with our lives, knowing we are forgiven for our sins. I mean God sent his OWN son to die on a cross so that we can live in His grace and forgiveness. Like how cool is that? He sent His OWN Son to the cross despite the fact that He knew we were going to be sinners. Talk about love. For me, remembering that Jesus died on the cross helps me to really picture how much God truly loves me and how far He is willing to go because He loves me. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suMhQ3ETCyI