Extravagant Love

I remember a time in my life when I thought that I could never be used by God. My life was a mess and I felt like no one else around me knew what it was like to fall. Had they known, maybe they would not have judged so harshly. But see, the amazing thing about our God is that he allows us to fall, to struggle, to fail, to sin in order that we might see victory! He is waiting there with his arms wide open, just like the father of the prodigal son. He didn't clean his son off before he held him and loved him. He loved him right where he was at that very moment! That's how our heavenly Father loves us; right where we are. What an extravagant love.

It is so easy to love a child, a friend, those that are a part of our lives. Even God says that it easy to love someone that's loveable. How easy is it to love a child that has been left behind by a parent? But have you ever passed a homeless man on a corner that is holding up a sign asking for food, money, a job and driven away broken hearted? How about a rebellious, run-away teen living on the streets? What about a man in prison or mother that has neglected her children for drugs.

You see, when God looks at each one of us, he just sees our heart. We are the ones that look at the choices that a person has made or the surface. Oh to be able to look on someone and just see them as God does - as a soul that is crying out for the forgiveness and salvation of a sovereign God who loves them beyond their wildest imagination and wants to use them for His glory. What a GREAT God to be able to use someone that has been accused of adultery and thrown into prison. How amazing is our Heavenly Father that he would use a forgiven and redeemed prostitute to spread the gospel. How unfathomable to our human minds is a God that takes a man, that lusted after another man's wife and committed adultery with her, had her husband killed and then took her to be his wife, and call's him a man after God's own heart.

What a great God to give us his precious word that is full of folks who failed, sinned, struggled, doubted, rejected and triumphed, to show us what he can do in us if we just let him. God has an amazing plan for each one of us. What an extravagant God!