“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3)
In our acronym series of REVIVE. I stands for I Am and I Have.
When God gives Moses the redemptive mandate to go free His people, Moses asks God who should Moses say gave him the authority?
“If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” they will ask me, “What is his name?” Then what should I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13)
“God replied to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’….This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.” (Exodus 3:14-15)
Jim and Elisabeth Eliot, their life together and her writings rock. In my college years, I had a friend who gifted me practically the entire book collection of what the Eliots wrote, including Passion and Purity.
One of the most noble passage in P & P: A man should never say to a woman “I love you,” until he can follow it up with these words, “Will you marry me?”
In a world where ‘love’ is flippantly applied, the Eliots believed its usage should mean more.
A few days before I was to leave the East Coast and return home. A few days before my graduation.
My friend who had given me those Eliot books surprised me: “I love you. Will you marry me?”
My first thought was: Jim and Elisabeth Eliot. Only he and I understood this.
He had remembered. We never dated. Just very good friends. Part of my close circle. He was going to medical school. I was moving to Massachusetts. I respected that he believed in the Eliot’s views. But I thought God was calling me to be a single missionary.
God I Am and I Have. I AM your God. I Have loved you with an everlasting love. God never intended love to be cheap, fake, deceptive, short-term. God I AM who freed the Israelites from 400 years of bondage wants you to be free. Because He has an everlasting plan for you.
Reach out to him. Enter into His goodness. Know the God I AM and God I Have, deeply loves you with an everlasting love. The ideal relationship. Embrace this Real Truth.