You know how you can listen to a song on repeat for weeks at a time, just because you love the song so much? Then after those weeks go by, you get tired of the song and move on to a new one? I don’t know about you, but I definitely to that.
I think this also happens with things we learn in life. That’s why we make the same mistakes twice. That’s why we desperately need a Savior. And how wonderful is it that we have a patient Savior, who is willing to walk with us as we make the same mistakes over and over again. Sometimes I feel so amazed and grateful for God in that way, that he forgives us over and over again. Then, sometimes this feels like a fact. Sometimes, it runs through my mind but misses my heart.
I find that this happens to everyone, but possibly more so to people like me who grew up knowing Jesus since a child. We learn the “Jesus Loves Me” song. We know in our minds that Jesus loves us. But for some of us, it’s not until later that we realize in our hearts how Jesus truly loves us.
I think there’s a huge difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge.
For example, when I was very young, I knew the good news of Jesus like the back of my hand. I knew the story. I knew I was a sinner. I said the prayer asking Jesus into my heart when I was four. A few years later, I decided I wanted to get dunked, and after that experience something changed in me. I really knew that Jesus loved me. He touched my heart and showed me how my sin is washed away by him and him alone. His love became so real to me, in both my heart and my mind. I played this love song on repeat. Then years later, God had to bring me to this truth again, because I had stopped remembering how deep his love was for me.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to constantly be amazed by God’s love. That’s what I’m praying for every day! And I know people who do live constantly blown away by God’s love. It is often in our sinful nature to forget, or take for granted, or go through a dry spell. I am guilty of this. But when we genuinely go before God and ask for his forgiveness, he does not withhold anything.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, make us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:4-9)
You and I are so deeply loved. We don’t deserve it, but God has made us worthy of it. Not by our own doing, but by his. I hope this verse sparks a new remembrance or a deeper understanding of just how much God cares for us. It is truly wonderful, and deserves to be played on repeat no matter what.