THE APPLE OF MY EYE: GOD’S LOVE UNVEILED

Being loved by someone is one of the best things in the world. To have someone ready to be patient with you. Someone who does not see you for your mistakes but for the beauty within you. Someone committed to you, who makes time for you, and all that comes with LOVE.

Now, receiving God’s love is truly one for the books!! You become exposed to a love that mankind could never offer on their own, only through the help of the Holy Spirit.

We often underestimate God’s love for us, yet He graciously gives His unconditional love to every one of us to enjoy. God has freely and wholeheartedly opened His heart to us all.

However, if we do not even acknowledge this, then it would be hard to embrace this amazing love.

How God views us

Sadly, the world tends to paint people in ways they see fit, which could be in a negative light or unoriginal.

If we are not careful, we may be viewing ourselves in the wrong light, lacking knowledge of how God sees us in His eyes. Which in all honesty is the only best perception of ourselves.

Who can tell us who we are and what we deserve better than the manufacturer Himself?!

When we get to a point of comprehending this and deciding that through Him, is the only way we will get information about ourselves, life will begin to change immensely. It is as if something clicks within you and you start having a new perception of God, yourself, people, and life.

The Word of God is the divine treasure of revelation of who we are in Christ and God’s perspective of us. Below, I will be revealing a few ways God sees us in His eyes.

• • BEAUTIFULLY & FEARFULLY MADE

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”_Psalms 139:13-16

In God’s eyes, you are among His best creations. He has taken the time to perfect every detail of how He desires us to be. Genesis chapter one describes how, before proceeding to create the next element, God ensures satisfaction with the results of His previous creation.

So having confidence that we are indeed unique and beautiful is extremely important. It can be hard to believe if we allow ourselves to believe in what Satan and people may say. We are responsible for proclaiming only what the Word of God says and nothing else!

• • PURE & RIGHTEOUS

“Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”_Matthew 5:8-10

A strategy that Satan enjoys using against mankind, is shame and guilt. He will find ways to bring up the past or situations that make us feel we are far from being what God could love. That we are too dirty and unwanted due to our sins.

Do not get me wrong, a believer in Christ does not mean we immediately become perfect. We may still have our shortcomings, and we are in the process of Christ perfecting us (if we allow Him to).

Yet, when we acknowledge our mistakes and sins, and come before God with a sincere heart of repentance, desiring and allowing Him to sanctify, purify, and transform us into people after His own heart, God views us as pure and righteous.

There are too many examples in the scriptures that validate how gracious, merciful, and loving God is. One biblical figure who encountered such qualities firsthand is Apostle Paul.

Despite being a persecutor of the Church, which indicates he was against God too in his past. God chose to call upon him to proclaim the gospel. This led to his significant role in Christianity and his recognition as a prominent figure.

• • IN HIS IMAGE

“You made him little less than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:”_Psalms 8:5-6

Discovering the verses in Psalms that declare our creation just a little below angels left me utterly shocked. Furthermore, God created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27).

Like, hold up! God, are you saying that the same way you can speak and things come into existence, I too can do the same?! Do you mean to say that God has given us the ability to speak, think, and act like Him!? Isn’t that just beautiful!!

‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.’ _Genesis 1:26-27

• • HOME

“He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”_Ephesians 1:5

God sees us as His family. The moment we genuinely give our lives to Christ, we are adopted by God into His enormous family. One thing about God is that He is greatly family-oriented! Like duh! God created the family with the intent of it being the foundational institution of society. So, He alone truly knows and understands the structure and operation of the family.

When I think of home, I’m inspired by the scriptures 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 6:19. Both scriptures refer to our bodies being the temple of God and how God’s Spirit lives within it.

It is amazing how God loves us so much as His family. He decided that we would not have a long-distance relationship with Him and chose to give us the Holy Spirit, His Spirit. How often do we acknowledge this?

God’s Love For us

When our perception of love has been skewed for so long, it becomes difficult to discern and accept genuine love. The desire to be loved can still be brewing within us, but when faced with it, it feels and looks unfamiliar.

Have you ever felt unfamiliar with love to the point where you need constant reminders that it’s entirely acceptable to desire and receive love without guilt? Situations in life make it hard to believe that we can ever experience pure love, that it is just some fairy tale.

Love has been twisted in so many ways that, it can get extremely confusing!

When discussing love, I’m not referring to the wrong portrayals seen in movies, societal norms, or the misconceptions we often hold about love. God’s love is unconditional and perfectly pure. When God loves, His only motive is to express love towards you! 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 provides a fitting description of God’s love.

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

Changing your negative outlook on love to receive

When our negative outlook on love changes, it is almost as if we become a magnet that attracts genuine love. It’s not that love was not around us, but the chances may be high that we either rejected it, were oblivious, or skeptical of it when we came face to face with it because of our unfamiliarity.

Living in a world where not everyone has opened their hearts and minds to the revelation of who God is and who He says they are, it can become a problem to maintain the godly mindset God intends for us to have. Therefore, we find few can love and be open to fully receiving it.

This is where the scripture, Joshua 1:8 comes in, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

In conclusion, it is amazing how God is already warning us and giving us the formula to succeed in maintaining the mindset necessary to live the glorious life He has for us. So here is a reminder to make the Word of God your closest friend, for the Word of God is God (John 1:1).

KNOW THAT YOU’RE THE APPLE OF GOD’S EYE!