I’ve had the best time asking and answering questions about love this month and the last question about love that we are answering is “what do I get from love.” We have gotten to learn together what love is,where to find it, why we need it, what we do with it, and lastly we are learning what we get from love.
In light of Valentine’s Day being yesterday I love to celebrate love. Celebrating love doesn’t always have to be romantic but it can just be having a heart of gratitude for the love we get to live with, the love of God. I love how kind God is to not only rescue us but to bless us on top of that. The blessing in love is the takeaways we get from it and how we get to live in the benefits of being loved by God.
Psalm 103: 2-5 says, “Praise the Lord my soul, and not forgot all his benefits: He forgives all your sin, he heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pit, he crowns you with love and compassion, he satisfies your desires with good things, and he renews your strength.” Living life in God’s love comes with benefits.
Breaking down this verse the first benefit of living in God’s love is the forgiveness of sins. Jesus left all he knew to experience the feelings we experience here on earth. As a result of dying on, we get to live free from things that once held us captive. One of the coolest things about living forgiven is God wipes your slate clean and there is nothing you have to pay for because of what he paid for on the cross.
The next benefit is he heals your diseases. My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer in the fall so our family has been down a route of seeking God and praying for healing. God is the ultimate healer. He is a healer of disease and physical sickness but he’s also the healer of internal struggles, life fear, anxiety, stress, and all other areas you may be believing to be healed from. We get to experience healing as a result of being his child. Whether healed on earth or in heaven God is faithful to this promise.
God tells us that a benefit of his love is being “redeemed from the pit.” God finds us in the lowest palace and takes us to the highest heights. I love how God relates our relationship with adoption, he chose us to be adopted into his family. We were once alone with no shelter to run to but God placed you in a home, in his family.
This passage shares that he crowns us with love and compassion and he satisfies your desires. God instills his attributes of love and compassion in us. As heirs of the king we get to love others and show compassion to them. God satisfies our desires, He puts a desire in your heart and loves to watch it come to fruition. Think about a desire you have, remind yourself its a desi from the Lord, and watch him gift you the outcome this year.
Lastly, God renews our strength. This is my favorite one because on the days when I have no strength God is kind enough to give me his. My passage for the year is 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, this passage magnifies the attributes of God and in verse 12 it says “In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.” God has the greatest strength of all and he delights in giving strength to us.
I have been having to lean on God’s strength a lot lately and maybe you have to. Thankfully these benefits are yours. Everyone of these is a benefit of being a child of God. God forgives, he heals, he crowns, he renews, and he redeems. As you go throughout your week, know that each of these is a gift from God to you so live forgive, healed, crowned, renewed, and redeemed.
Xo Scarlet