daily devotional

Do you know that you are loved relentlessly by God? A relentless love is a love that is constant and never ending. A relentless love is one that will hunt you down and WAIT you out. A relentless love is one that will NOT quit trying.

And maybe you already know that about God’s love for you. I hope so. But may I remind you of God’s relentless love for your child who has gone astray? They’re knocking on all the wrong doors and going down all the wrong paths, making more wrong choices than you knew any one child could make … and God is relentless in his love for her. Relentless in his love for him. RELENTLESS. You may be losing hope for this child, but GOD ISN’T!
God has a relentless love for that loved one who is royally messing up their life. For that one who is running further and further away. For that one who you just can’t seem to help. Remember God’s love for them is constant and never ending, he hasn’t given up on them, he’s waiting, he’s using everything in their path to reach them, and he will not forsake them.

Nothing can separate them from the love of God. Nothing can keep him from loving them. Nothing!

Romans 8: 38-39 says “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That brings me great confidence. The one I love – the one who is running – the one who is living all wrong has NEVER been separated from God’s love.

As moms, as wives, as sisters, as friends we grow weary in the chase, but God doesn’t. Let him do the chasing today, let us pray. We can back down from the nagging, pushing and reasoning role and we can surrender them to God and say, “God work. Just work.”

God once called you and I out of darkness. He made our fight his own. AND GOD WILL DO IT FOR HIM TOO. GOD WILL DO IT FOR HER. God will use anything and everything to bring their heart to him. He will use their failure. He will use their disappointment. He will use their addiction. He will use their rock bottom. What we must do is get out of the way of the almighty and let him work.

Hand over the battle to God today. Let the relentless love of God that chased you down and captured your heart do the same for the one you love who is wandering. Won’t you trust God with this? Won’t you trust that God will carry them and cover them, just as he has carried you and covered you? Maybe it’s hard for you to imagine redemption in this mess because you didn’t make the same horrible choices they’re making. Step down high and mighty one … you have no idea what God’s mercy has spared you from. His grace has covered you in ways you cannot imagine!

God’s grace simply amazes me. He takes the most unfavorable and unlikely and turns them into legends for him. Paul, author of the majority of the new testament, a mighty crusader for Christ was formerly Saul. A mighty persecutor of all Christians on a mission to behead any follower of Jesus. Wow, God’s relentless love changed his life! Can’t he do the same for the one you love? Can’t he change their story? If he did it for Paul, he can do it again.

David, just a little shepherd boy, too young, too little, too weak to even be in the army, just a boy delivering lunch to his brothers … and God chose him to conquer the giant Goliath. That’s what happens when God’s relentless love gets ahold of you. He changes your identity. He changes your path. He changes your future. Who has someone in their life that needs a new identity because they one they have adopted is all wrong? Who has someone in their life on the wrong path, writing a future that terrifies you? God’s relentless love can CHANGE IT ALL. You can’t change it. Nothing you can do will change this situation, but God’s relentless love is at power here and there’s not a single mountain that can’t be moved with that power.

The same God that changed Paul – The same God that choose David – Is the same God who wildly loves you today and is relentless after the heart of your child. Your husband. Your sister. He has a plan for their life, a destiny in mind, and he isn’t backing down. Not today, not tomorrow. Won’t you place your trust in him?