Proverbs 4:20-27 ; 6:16-35; Romans 8

Scripture - "None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us."  Romans 8:38-39

Observation - Paul here seems to be driving home the point that God's love for us (as it is manifested in Jesus) is unconditional and always there for us.  God's love for us is absolute.  It is offered once and for all.  Not even our sin can keep God from loving us.  "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us (this is the depth of God's love).  The love is always there.

Application - While the love is always there, it is not forced on us.  Even if we were to choose to be in constant rebellion against God, God's heart would still love us.  But that love can only give us the life that really is life when we receive it.  When we believe that God loves us, and that Christ died for us.  Paul writes,

"But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!"

The key here being "you who welcome him..." and when we do "you experience life on God's terms."  That's the ultimate end of being loved by God - life to the fullest.  God's love is ready and waiting for us - always will be.  We need to welcome it.

Prayer -  Dear God, thank for your love which never ends and is always present - ready and waiting - for me...to welcome it, to receive it into my heart...to be made new and alive by it...to live in it and live it in your world.  In Jesus' name I pray.  Amen.