You are dearly loved
In my first letter to you I told you that you are precious because you are made in the image of God. In my second letter to you, I agreed with you that the world is broken, and said that the answer to why and whether it can be fixed is both painful and wonderful. Yesterday I focused on the painful part, that the reason the world is broken is because we’ve broken it. All of us have said “my life, my rules” and that’s led to problems between us and God.
But here’s the wonderful news – you are still dearly loved!
God has not given up on you! The most wonderful truth in the world, the most precious truth, is that God loves you so much that He gave His own Son for you. Why would he do this?
In 2018 a supermarket cashier was taken hostage by an Islamic terrorist, incredibly Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame offered to swap places with her. He knew there was great danger to himself, but he was willing to do this to save this lady and to prevent further loss of life. Tragically he was killed by the terrorist. He gave his life so that others might live.
I imagine the lady he rescued is incredibly grateful for the sacrificial love shown to her.
Do you know that God has loved you in an even greater way than that?
The way we’ve treated God and other people has led us into all sorts of trouble. And incredibly Jesus Christ loved you so much that he was willing to swap places with you, to take on himself all the trouble. And it wasn’t a random swap, he deliberately stepped into your place, it was a personal swap for you.
My mum died of cancer when I was just 14, and so for a number of years, I found it hard to believe God was loving. But when I saw that God loved me so much that he sent Jesus to die for me, it changed everything.
I imagine sometimes you find it hard to believe you are loved, maybe its things that you’ve done, or things that have been done to you. I’d love to encourage you that you are dearly loved. Maybe when you are struggling to believe that, you could think back 2000 years, to a moment in history when Jesus Christ made the most amazing swap for you. He loved you so much that he stepped into your place to give you life.
You might have all sorts of questions about that, but I hope that may be a glimmer of hope, that God has shown His love for you. I’d be very happy to listen to any questions you may have, and if you’d like me to have a go at an answer, I’d be happy to try that as well, you can just send a question here (just leave the name and contact details blank if you want to stay anonymous) and I can answer it on the blog.
But for today, can you just hear again – you are dearly loved.
Please keep going.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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