You fall down?
The world is falling down around you?
Those you love have abandoned you?
Your life is plagued by physical pain?
Your child isn’t perfect?
You discover you are pregnant and you don’t know who the father is?
You’ve been told you have AIDS, or cancer, or early onset Alzheimer’s, or Multiple Sclerosis?
Your brother was sent to war and didn’t return?
Your parents both have Alzheimer’s and you are their only child?
You lost your job due to budget cuts after working at the same position for 27 years?
Your fun friends find other fun friends to hang out with- without you?
You can’t bring yourself to walk out of the door of your house-ever?
You just finished the fourth half-gallon of ice cream, the fifth box of cookies, and a third jar of hot fudge sauce topped off by a bag of marshmallows?
Your best friend is no longer your friend?
Your husband drinks himself to sleep every night?
Your sister lives her life on the edge, you never know when she will show up or what shape she will be in?
You found cocaine in your 14-year-old’s bedroom?
You have maxed out all of your credit cards, you are behind on the mortgage, and the electricity has been turned off because you can’t stop spending?
You can’t move from room to room in your house because there are boxes everywhere, up to the ceiling because you can’t throw anything out?
Your mom sleeps with every man she meets?
Your father abused you, your older sister, your younger sister and your baby brother for years?
Your wife left on a business trip with her boss and didn’t return?
You have never heard the words “I love you” said to you?
The list can and does go on. We pass people on the street that carry crippling burdens around with them and we never notice. Meanwhile, we are buckling under the weight of our own burdens.
Yet…
He LOVES us.
All of us.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived”- the things God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9b
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. Deuteronomy 7:9
May your unfailing love rest upon us oh, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:22
Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Psalm 36:5
How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7
Do not withhold your mercy from me, oh Lord; may your love and your truth always protect me. Psalm 40:11
When I said, “My foot is slipping”, your love, oh Lord, supported me. Psalm94:18
“ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39