I’m going to counsel you, Christian

I’m going to counsel you, Christian. I don’t know you, but I love you. I love you with a very small part of the love that God has for you: a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In his great love, he has granted you his Gospel, the hope of the world and the one refuge from shame and despair. Truly the one refuge from being separated from him forever to spiral endlessly into the black sucking void, with no chance of being rescued. Christian, if you have heard his voice telling you about his son Jesus, inviting you to put all of your hope in him to act in his role as King of all creation, and to take from you all of your guilt and shame; if you have heard his voice and believed, rejoice! You have been greatly favored. The Father has picked you for an unending romance with him. He has fixed you in his sights, and will not let you go. Persevere in his love; don’t let anything else try to tempt you towards a sweeter love, a deeper joy, a truer peace, a more vibrant freedom. Anything that tells you it can offer something better than the free gift of salvation and intimacy with the God of everything is from the father of lies. He has been lying since the beginning; it’s all he can do. He can only twist the truth, he can only take good things and pervert them. 

What do you love, Christian? Love Jesus more! Love everything that is good: love the sweetness of life, the joy of friendship; love everything that is delightful, and above all these things, love Jesus. For it is from him and through him and to him that all these things were made, that you might see him and know him as the glorious Lord of all. He holds nothing back from you, he is graciously giving you all things. Even now! Here and now he has not withheld a single thing from you! What do you feel that you lack? It’s a lie! You have been given all things! Silence the voice that tells you he has been holding something good back from you. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” This is a promise, and it should be your constant companion. With it, you can breathe in blessing and breathe out thanks. Breathe in favor, and breathe out worship. He has given you all things.