how deep the Fathers love for us

lately i've been convicted how broken i am and how deep the Fathers love is. it's hard to believe and have faith that all our sins are forgiven. that the Father doesn't see the filth that consumes me. i guess the Fathers love for His people has really been on my heart because of the things that i've witnessed in my clinical this semester. most of the patients i care for are: untouchables, cast aways, unwanteds. it's really sad to look in these patient's eyes and see the brokenness that plagues their soul! there is one patient that has been their for months. she is so sick by the brokenness of her past that i really don't think she's going to recover. the other day i walked in the room and she looked like she had been crying. i asked her if everything was okay? she said she was feeling depressed and needed her depression medicine. i gave her a hug because that's all that i knew to do and of coarse she starts crying. i got her medicine for her, but i really thought that she needed a dose of the gospel.

this whole semester has really revealed to me the depth of sin. like on spring break i was watching the movie blood diamond and my mom was like "how can you watch that? it's sooo violent!!" i was like, " i know, but that is the world we live in!" i feel that we sometimes put ourselves in a box. a box where the only things that matters to us are the things that we are dealing with. it's like the world revolves around us. i mean if you think about it, who is the only person that we never get tired of hearing from???? ourselves. it's really sad that sin distorts our mind into thinking that. i just got done listening to a sermon kind of about this. it was about doubting the Fathers love....

we think that the Father can't possible love us for all the sin that we have caused. for all the brokenness, for our addictions, for our past. but He does!!!

"wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. there is NONE to guide her among all the sons she has borne' there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she had brought up. these two things have happened to you- who will console you?- devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you? your sons have fainted' they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine; thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of His people: "BEHOLD, I HAVE TAKEN FROM YOUR HAND THE CUP OF STAGGERING; THE BOWL OF MY WRATH YOU SHALL DRINK NO MORE; And I PUT IT INTO THE HAND OF YOUR TORMENTORS, WHO HAVE SAID TO YOU, "BOW DOWN, THAT WE MAY PASS OVER," AND HAVE MADE YOUR BACK LIKE THE GROUND AND LIKE THE STREET OR THEM TO PASS OVER." isaiah 51: 17-23

"knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." 1 peter 1:18

"in this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 john 4:10

it's crazy to imagine that kind of love. i mean, we judge our neighbors and our friends, gossip about their sin, our hearts are hardened, we are unforgiving, sinful people. i mean how can we truly call ourselves christians if our hearts aren't consumed with love for all people. Jesus forgave us for all our sins, so why can't we look to our brother and sisters in Christ and love them for the broken person that they are?? something to think about...