Warning: sappy content to follow

Psalm 57:9-10 (The Message translation)
“I'm thanking you, GOD, out loud in the streets, singing your praises in town and country. The deeper your love, the higher it goes; every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness.”

We all have days when we are positive that the Creator of the Universe is out to get us. I recently went through a season so horrific, so filled with pain that words fail to accurately describe it, except to say my heart literally, physically hurt. Most days I didn’t want to get out of bed, and when it was all over, I was genuinely angry with God for not acting in the way I thought He should have. You couldn’t have convinced me for a second that God loved me, not after what he allowed to happen.

And honestly, He could have stopped what happened. But had He done so, I would have missed the opportunity to see Him turn a disgusting, heart-wrenching situation around into something that showed how huge He is and how small I am. I would have missed the chance for Him to display what true freedom and healing mean, not just for me, but also for others. And I would have missed getting to know a Father who holds me firm when all hell breaks loose. I would have missed out on even a tiny understanding of the immensity of His love for me.

The Psalmist David wrote about this love while he hid from King Saul in a cave, in the middle of the wilderness, trying to avoid a man bound and determined to kill him. Not exactly the kind of circumstances that make you want to lift up your hands and sing praises, right? Because, like me, David had done nothing wrong, but was still suffering from the choices of others. And yet he chose to turn his focus elsewhere, reminding himself that God’s love is always true. Others may fail and desert you. They may disappoint you or break your heart. In fact, they probably will. And while all this is happening, God’s love for you multiplies.

Take the love that you feel the most deeply, the most passionately, and multiply it by a hundred. Powerful, right? Well take that and now multiply it by a thousand. Even better, multiply it by a million… a billion… ten trillion. Dizzy yet? Can you even comprehend the intensity of that emotion? Because that doesn’t even touch the depth of the love God has for you. It’s as close as I can come to explaining what “the deeper [God’s] love, the higher it goes” really means (Ps.57:9). Every time you think you understand just a snippet of God’s love, you dip your toes into the vast ocean of what He truly feels.

I, for one, am humbled by this astounding thought. God adores me. And believe it or not, whether you acknowledge it or not, God adores you, too. No matter what you do, God loves you enough that you should start singing and dancing in the streets about it.

And so, just for the sake of reminder, I think it’s worth repeating. You might even want to say it out loud, and I recommend you allow yourself the luxury of a little smile.

God adores me.

Feels good, doesn’t it?