“Did you know that you will never find a better friend than I am? It’s true. Yes, I am much more than that, but one of the aspects of My nature is to be a true friend to My creation. My commitment to you is stronger than your sin. It is not lessened in any way by your actions. It is not even hindered by your inability to love Me back. In fact, there is nothing that you can ever do to stop Me from loving you.

"You need to finally rest in the fact that I love you with an undying love. I will always love you. I will never leave you. I will forever protect you and hold you close. My love is not diminished when I need to correct you. In fact, when there is need for correction, it is My passionate love for you that is behind My actions.

"I know that your ability to fellowship with Me will be minimized if I allow you to remain in your sin. That is not the best life you can have, so I need to use My ways to cause you to change your ways. When I am working in your life, understand that I am not only addressing the need for change; but I am also responsible for giving you the power to change. Your job is simply to understand My love for you and embrace what I am doing. I will do the rest.

"Never doubt that it is My love for you that is in operation, no matter what you are going through. Embrace Me through any kind of trial. My love for you will always pull you through.” 

 2 Samuel 14:14b NIV

“…But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”

If there is one Bible verse that gives me an awesome, wondrous picture of the nature of God’s love toward us, this verse in 2 Samuel is it. If you have any doubt about who God is and how much He loves you, study this verse until it is part of your innermost being. You will never fear again.

God does what it takes to bring us to Himself. He pursues us. He woos us. Then, if we still will not embrace His love, He causes circumstances in our lives that are designed to make us notice Him. If that doesn’t work, He will allow us to fall, so that we need Him. If even that is not enough, He will break us so that we cry out to Him.

Finally, more than likely after many years of this kind of pursuit, we are His. We are, however, raw and incapable of understanding His love. So the process continues over and over and over again throughout our lives on this earth. He shows His love continually because of His knowledge of what it takes for us to surrender. If we do not know how to accept it, He will do what it takes for us to see it.

Over and over He calls us to need Him. If we will not accept that call and desire to remain in charge, separate from His authority, He begins the process of breaking us all over again.

We want to be strong and very religious. He wants us only to need Him. We want to be full of ourselves and capable of handling anything that comes our way. He wants us to be empty and needy, so we can embrace His strength. In our trials, we doubt His love, when it is His love that may be allowing the trial that is bringing us to the end of ourselves.

I love His love for us. I love the way He continually confirms it to us by eliminating anything in us that will not serve Him. What an incredible love!

Wanting more of His hand on me,

Jim Corbett