The Lord’s Great Love for Us
By Maria Fontaine
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Open my eyes that I may see
glimpses of truth thou hast for me.
Place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
Open my ears that I may hear
voices of truth thou sendest clear,
and while the wave notes fall on my ear,
everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
Open my mouth and let me bear
gladly the warm truth everywhere.
Open my heart and let me prepare
love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my mouth, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
—Clara Scott, 1841–1897
Thank You, Lord, for that beautiful hymn that expresses our desires so well. Thank You for the scripts You prepare for us, these words that we can sing and speak that have been inspired by Your saints down through the ages. We don’t have to depend on our own inadequate words, but we can look in Your Word for praises to You and for instruction, and we can also sing these beautiful songs of praise. We are so grateful for how Your saints have shared these songs with us, and thus have blessed so many generations.
We can adapt these hymns so that we’re singing them to Jesus instead of singing about Him. For some reason, many of the hymns of Christian faith are sung about Jesus instead of directly to Him. Maybe that was because they were written more as a testimony to people to lead them to the Lord than as a prayer to Jesus.
The Lord’s love is so great, and He manifests it in many different ways. We see examples of God’s great love all the time, every day. One particular illustration that has stood out to me of late is how the Lord forgives us so freely and completely for our sins and failings. When we confess our sins, the Lord is so loving in accepting our repentance and in forgiving us so beautifully. The Lord’s love is so greatly manifested in His forgiveness for us when we blow it and when we stumble and fail. It’s a beautiful thing to see how loving He is in spite of our sins.
The amazing thing is how the Lord concentrates on our repentance and His forgiveness of us, rather than our sin. His Word tells us that “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you,”1 and He is “faithful and just to forgive us all our sins” when we confess them to Him.2 The way the Lord is with us is such a wonderful example of the way we need to be with others.
When people fail and make mistakes, even deliberately sin, when they repent, we need to love them as Jesus loves us, and forgive them as Jesus forgives us. That means to accept their repentance and love them and encourage them in the new start that they want to make. We all need to learn this.
We might feel like we have failed so many times, we fall short, or we don’t feel capable. This can take away our joy of the Lord and weigh us down and make us feel like we can’t accomplish much for Him, because we’re not good enough, we’re not capable. These things can burden and drain us and keep us from being able to joyfully serve the Lord.
It seems that many of us tend to think negatively about ourselves and worry that we’re not close enough to the Lord, or we’re lagging in our spiritual growth, or we’re disappointing the Lord and others in some way. It’s sad that we would feel that way when the Lord loves us so much, and He constantly reassures us of His love. He has said so many beautiful things in His Word to each one of us.
I think with some people—perhaps many people—negative thinking is a habit; it’s just the way we think about ourselves. It’s an ingrained attitude of heart and mind that we need to overcome. We know from His Word that the Lord wants us to think positive, uplifting, and faith-building thoughts!3
Of course, the Lord wants us to be humble, and we’re not supposed to be thinking so highly of ourselves that we become proud. But we must not equate thinking negative thoughts about ourselves with being humble. We have to find the balance in being humble but making sure that we’re not being negative about ourselves. We have to build godly confidence—built on our faith in God and trust in His Word—into our lives and attitudes, which the Bible tells us has great reward.4
The Lord shows us day after day and moment to moment His great love for us, and we need to accept that love and not allow any negative views of ourselves to keep us from receiving it. These things will just weigh us down and keep us from doing our best for the Lord and from accepting by faith all the things that the Lord has for us.
When we realize how much He loves us, it changes our whole outlook on life and our way of relating to others. Because when you feel confident and when you know you are loved, then you are able to love others. When you are secure in the Lord’s love and you accept His unconditional love and You are aware of His constant presence in your life, you can reach out and love others. You have more to give. As Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give.”5
The Bible tells us that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”6 What a beautiful promise that we can hold on to! What a beautiful example of the compassion and love that the Lord wants us to show to others.
I think many of us experience times when we feel that we are falling short of the mark or have fallen out of favor with the Lord, and it can be very difficult at such times to be assured of Jesus’ love. But He wants each of us to experience His love in a deeply personal way—not only because He wants us to be close to Him, but because He wants us to reach out as His ambassadors with love for others. And to love and lead others to Him, we have to know without a shadow of a doubt that He loves us unconditionally and eternally. We have to be confident in His love, so that this love can overflow on others and we can be a testimony to others.
In order to reach others in the way the Lord wants us to, we need to feel secure and confident in His love, and rest in the knowledge that His love is unconditional and He has promised to love us eternally.
Originally published March 1995. Adapted and republished March 2022.
Read by Debra Lee.
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