The enduring love of Jesus towards us is like no other. Jesus endured suffering because of His enduring love for us. He willingly carried and endured the cross so that we could have an abundant life on earth and eternal life.
We all long to be loved because we were created to be loved. While relationships here on earth are vital for us to thrive, we must remember that God’s love is greater than any love we could ever experience on earth.
The love of Jesus is pure, perfect, and great. No earthly relationship could ever surpass God’s love. Ephesians 3:17-18 says, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.“
We need a revelation of Jesus’ enduring love so that we, too, can endure this life steadfast in the faith.
Hebrews 12:1-4 says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.”
Jesus does not promise us an easy life with no troubles. We need to stand strong and fight the good fight of faith daily, and it starts with being rooted in God’s love. As we behold Jesus and His enduring love for us, we can finish our race strong.
Let us aim to live as Paul, who said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
What is hindering you from fighting the good fight and keeping the faith? How can you be more intentional in fixing your eyes on the enduring love of Jesus toward you?
Man of Sorrows
Though Jesus is the Good Shepherd, He chose to be led like a lamb to the slaughter because of His great love for us. He didn’t bother to defend Himself close to His crucifixion because He knew He had to die for us. Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.”
Jesus is God, but He chose to put on flesh, suffer as a Man, and die for us so that in Him, we can find redemption (right standing with God) and eternal life.
Take time to ask the Holy Spirit to give you a revelation of the sufferings of Jesus and understand the depths of His love for you. Jesus endured the cross with joy and bore every weight of sin so that we don’t have to bear the burdens of this world and sin.
His love for us is an enduring one.
Think about how patient and kind God has been toward you. Jesus’s love willingly waits for us with long-suffering and pursues us even at the cost of enduring the shame of the cross.
The cross looks glorious now for us as Christians, but the cross was not a glorious thing back during Jesus’s time. The cross represented shame and a criminal’s death.
Jesus gladly endured the cross, despising the shame because of how much He loves us (Hebrews 12:2).
Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
Remember every day how much Jesus loves you and His enduring love for you. Do not believe the lie of the enemy that you are not loved. God’s love has been lavished upon us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Living with the Cross Before Us
What would it look like if we lived with the cross before us, remembering what Jesus did for us? You may mentally know that Jesus died on the cross, but has it become real and alive in your heart?
This is when we need the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
May we live with a revelation of the cross every day, remembering how greatly Jesus loved us and that He willingly suffered and died on the cross so that we could have eternal life.
None of us deserves eternal life, but Jesus chose to make a way for us to have an abundant life through His death. Only the blood of Jesus can wash our sins away (1 Peter 1:17-18).
We need a daily revelation of God’s love to follow Jesus successfully. We can only love Jesus because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Receive the love of Jesus as you look to the cross and choose to daily follow Him that you may be saved. He is worthy of our laid-down lives.
Following Jesus out of mere religion will never last long. If we want to live out what Jesus says in Matthew 16:24, to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus, we must be rooted in God’s love that is revealed through Jesus Christ.
It is the enduring love that Jesus displayed on the way to the cross and His crucifixion that strengthens us to carry our own cross to follow Jesus.
As we remember His great mercy and love, we become empowered to love Jesus back.
Will you ask Jesus to give you a greater revelation of His love for you on the cross?
We have real hope that death isn’t the end because Jesus is alive! Jesus was crucified, but on the third day he rose again. He overcame death, so in Jesus, we too will overcome death and live forever.
Jesus says in Revelation 1:18, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” May you experience the depth of Jesus’s sacrifice and the power of His resurrection.
So remember, the enduring love of Jesus is like no other.
Prayer: Jesus, thank You for loving me with an enduring love. Thank You for the cross, for Your sacrifice, and for the hope I have in You. Help me live every day rooted in Your love.
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