DAY 5: DEUTERONOMY

“He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.” (Deuteronomy 7:13)

Dear Christian,

God loves you because He loves you.

He does not love you because you are good, strong, smart, or beautiful. In the verses leading up to Deuteronomy 7:13, it says,

“It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

Sometimes we believe the lie that God ONLY loves us when we are good — when we are meeting his expectations, when we are generally a “good person,” when we attend church. But it can’t be further from the truth.

God loves us even in our brokenness, even in our slavery, even in our sin. In Romans 5:8 we read,

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Did you catch that? While we were still sinners.

Jesus came to the world, not to recruit good people, not for behavior modification, but to save sinners like you and me. Jesus came knowing that He would be rejected, humiliated, and killed by His own creation, but He did it anyway so that all who believe in Him can have fellowship with the Father forever. 

Take heart. God’s love is set on you.

Love,
Patsy

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Created as part of the Books of the Bible Collection where I meditate on God’s beauty and faithfulness from beginning to end for 66 days from Genesis to Revelation. Each painting will be accompanied by an envelope containing a personal reflection based on the text the painting is based on.

An 8x10 inch original watercolor painting on 100% cold pressed cotton paper, 2023.