God's love

As I hope this blog would be a source of encouragement and testimony to others, I’d like to share about how God touched my life in the past and continues to do so now…

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is [God’s] love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:11-12).

For many years of my life, I thought I was a morally upright person: a pretty ‘good’ boy. Nope, totally wrong. Quite the opposite, actually! When I compared myself with God's holy standards (revealed to us by the God's Word: the B-i-b-l-e), instead of comparing myself with my own set of dodgy standards, I realised that: hey, I've fallen heaps short of God's holy standards.

Because I had yet to understand God’s great love for me, I became ashamed of Jesus, constantly ignored Jesus by refusing to spend time reading His Word and talking (praying) to Him, and habitually rejected His commands by doing things contrary to His will. For example, I had major problems with pride, lust and deceit. Now these are serious issues according to the Bible. Jesus tells us that “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Whoa! To my shame, because I habitually rejected God’s commandments, I was soon a slave to disobedience to God.

A few years ago, I realised that it was decision time. I had two choices: to follow God and do what He says through the Bible, or reject Him altogether. Although I had the desire to follow Him (by obeying Him), the good I wanted to do I could not do, but the evil (any disobedience to God – for eg, lust, not loving, hate) I did not want to do I kept on doing. One day, completely humbled, I asked God to rescue me from the bondage of rejecting Him. He graciously answered my my request, and taught me to overcome this struggle by keeping His Word in my heart. I did so, and it worked! I was in awe of His mighty power and completely overjoyed seeing that I was now free from the stronghold of disobedience to Him.

As a result of experiencing God’s power, God thankfully opened my eyes and I began to understand how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. I stuffed up big time (because of my rejection of Him, rejecting His just commands) and rightly deserved God’s just punishment (that is, eternal separation from Him). However, God loved me (and you) so much that He gave His One and Only Son to take the deserved punishment from me (and you) and that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. How awesome is that!? And so, I believed, and accepted His free gift.

Therefore, I am saved not by anything good I have done nor by my upbringing; rather I am thankful that it is by God’s grace and mercy alone that I am saved, and it is God’s amazing grace and mercy that sustains me now.

I earnestly hope that all of you have (and continues to), or will one day experience the joy of knowing God’s amazing love for us :).

PS. If there's anything I can elaborate, will be glad to do so :).