TODAY’S DAILY DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE
Made For Relationship
We were designed to have a personal connection with our heavenly Father. We were designed to know him and for him to know us. This one piece of information is intended to define both who we are and how we behave. Its purpose is to lay the groundwork on which we build our lives, thoughts, feelings, and actions. And the only way that his unending love and devotion is reflected in our lives is if we make our relationship with God the primary and most important focus of our daily lives.
I have spent a significant portion of my life putting the wrong things in the centre of my life. I have allowed things like ephemeral success, the admiration of others, finding my identity in my works, and an image of perfection to be the things that drove me moment by moment. And in those endeavours, I discovered nothing but disappointment, exhaustion, and yearnings that were never satiated. Even within the framework of Christianity, there is the temptation to let oneself be led astray by things of this world, which can never truly fulfil one’s needs.
But there is another way that comes from God. We are able to give up our striving and begin to enjoy a life that is built on our connection with our Creator because of the love and grace that come from our heavenly Father. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” This verse is referring to the people of Israel. There is a desire, deep within each one of us, to find our foundation in the fact that we are the people of God. We were made to live out of the empowering knowledge that our God is real, he can be known, he loves us without condition, and he has made his nearness entirely available to us. This is the purpose for which we were created.
You were designed to constantly be aware of the love that God has for you, regardless of the time of year. You were designed to experience the goodness of your heavenly Father and to see that he is good. You were created to live in continuous communion with your Maker, so that each and every moment would be filled to the brim with the overflowing presence that he has to offer. God has a plan for your life. He sincerely cares about you. And he won’t stop working on you until every last bit of your heart belongs to him. The love of God is completely possessive while at the same time being entirely self-sacrificing.