When we lived in Sydney, my daughter attended a small Christian primary school and they had an annual “Week of Spiritual Focus”. A spiritual message was selected to guide the teachings for the week and the small school congregation would meet for a devotional meeting each day of that week to sing songs of praise, share bible stories and watch plays depicting modern day parables. One year’s theme really stood out for me. The theme for that year was:
“Jesus loves me when I’m good,
when I do the things I should.
Jesus loves me when I’m bad,
even though it makes Him sad.”
Such a simple little rhyme which both young and old can easily read. But in these four simple lines are powerful, life changing truths. Sadly though, I think that in our efforts to do the things that we should, we forget that the love of the Saviour is perfect and complete and that he continues to love us even when we may not be quite so perfect.
Honestly now, not one of us are perfect! We all make mistakes, we choose the easy way, we fail in our diligence. Sadly, we all sin – sometimes it is just a little thing but sometimes we may realise that we have really, really done the wrong thing. Sometimes when we have sinned it can seem that we have lost the right to be loved by the Saviour – that sinning has made us unloveable and unforgiveable. When this happens, we can often become very harsh and unforgiving toward ourselves and may turn our back on the Saviour. But that hopeless, dark feeling doesn’t reflect the reality. The Saviour knew that we would not just stumble, but that at times, we would actually fall . . . fall completely into sin. And He knew that that is when we would need Him the most.
You see, even though it is good to be good, the Saviour always knew that we would not be able to be perfect in this life. Our imperfections, mistakes and sins are no surprise to Him - that is why the Plan of Salvation was necessary – in John 3:16 we are reminded that “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.” Or in other words:
“Jesus loves me when I’m good,
when I do the things I should.
Jesus loves me when I’m bad,
even though it makes Him sad.”
In Revelations 3:20 the Saviour promises: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him.” The Lord is always there, he won’t force us to turn to Him, but He is always waiting, ready and loving each one of us, despite our weaknesses, mistakes and sins (big or small). If any of you have turned away from the Lord, I invite you to open the door to the Saviour, turn to Him and invite Him back into your heart and life . . . let Him love you.
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