Lately, I have been spending time in the book of John. I want to know about this man who was not only granted the privilege to walk with Jesus, but also given insight to see the times in which we are living as he was instructed to write the Book of Revelation. He gives us so much truth and a different view of Jesus’ life while upon the earth, as John describes himself as the one whom Jesus loves. It was not that Jesus loved John more than the other disciples, but it was that John saw himself as one that Jesus loves. Here again, I am stressing the importance of seeing as I spoke of yesterday.

When we know we are loved, we begin to open up our hearts. It is only when we know that we are loved that we feel that we can be ourselves. It is when we know we are truly loved we begin to let down the walls that we so often put around ourselves so that we will not be hurt again. It is in the place of knowing love that we find our true identity. As we begin to understand Jesus’ love for us, we will stop defining ourselves by our failures and shortcomings.

Just imagine a child who has been abandoned and taken from foster home to foster home…never really knowing he is loved or where he belongs. But once that one, that one who sees his worth, says I want to make you mine and adopts the child into his family, the child begins to hope again. This child is not loved for anything he can do for the family. He is loved just because he is. It is in this place of unconditional love that he begins to let go of his terrors of the past, his sense of abandonment, his fear for what lies ahead. He is secure in this newly found pure love for him. And so it is with us. There is no purer love thanthe Father has for us. “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:5

It is in knowing the love of Jesus that we are open to receive mysteries of the Kingdom. Our hearts become unlocked to see more of His beauty and glory. It is in the place of knowing His love that we can, by faith, begin to step out into our destiny, knowing that He is at the end of our race cheering us on and saying, “Come on, you can do it!”

“For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11.

Today, He is inviting you into a place deeper into His heart whether you have walked with Him for years or if you have never taken that step towards Him. His love is wooing you into the reality of knowing who you really are, who you were truly created to be and to partake of His unconditional love. He is waiting for you to lay aside all condemnation and come running to Him…with your hang-ups and all. You are loved. See yourself as the one Jesus loves.

“We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19