"I have loved you!"

"God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution." (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)

I read this quote in a book I'm reading called "Money, Possesions, and Eternity." And as I've been reading this book (I'm still just in the beginning chapters), I'm reminded of how I tend to forget God in the glamour of all His gifts. Sometimes I'm so fascinated by Creation yet I forget the Creator. Or I become so attached to people and things and I forget that all that is good in them is from God alone. Or we start trusting ourselves to "get things done" instead of trusting in God's sovereignty. I have to daily remind myself to trust that He desires to bless me and He's working in me for my good. I struggle to let go of myself everyday, to die to myself.

"He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 'I know your deeds Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name." Rev. 3:7-8. I have just a "little power" with which I must daily choose to cling to Jesus. He has sovereign power, not just the will to do what He pleases, but the power to do all that He pleases. He pleases to call me His own.

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name." Rev. 3:12. Why do I worry? His grace and love bewilders me.

In the same letter in Revelation He said "I will make them know that I have loved you." That's just cool.