"You will lose your baby teeth.
At times, you’ll lose your faith in me.
You will lose a lot of things,
But you cannot lose my love.

You may lose your appetite,
Your guiding sense of wrong and right.
You may lose your will to fight,
But you cannot lose my love.

You will lose your confidence.
In times of trial, your common sense.
You may lose your innocence,
But you cannot lose my love.

Many things can be misplaced;
Your very memories be erased.
No matter what the time or space,
You cannot lose my love."
--"You Can Not Lose My Love" by Sara Groves

I am sitting in a Starbucks this afternoon in Joliet, Illinois, waiting for the rain to stop. My iTunes is open on my laptop and a Sara Groves song just about floored me. It is called, "You Can Not Lose My Love," and it talks about how we are unfaithful, but Jesus is totally dependable and rock solid.

This song got me thinking about one of my favorite verses in the New Testament.

Romans 8:35-39 says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 
 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'"

These verses bring me so much hope today. It takes the burden off of my own back and relieves my worry. I don’t have to worry about my inabilities to please people, or God.

We all have times in our lives when we can not feel God, even though He never leaves our side. We all have bad days--the kind that kick you down, and break your will.

The last few months have tested my faith, and brought me to an unbelievable understanding that Jesus never gives up on us.

We do not have the ability to sin so much that He, who is love, can not cover us.

We also do not have to fear the thought of being "put together" in front of people. We are broken down sinners, in need of a loving Savoir--someone who will never leave us or forsake us for anything.

God does not get distracted by other things and leave us. He does not lose patience with us when we act like spoiled children, and He never stops giving us chances to make things right with our relationship between each other.

"God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises…leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself."
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

He will not always give us what we want, but always what we need.

When I lose faith, He is faithful.
When I forget Him in the middle of my day, He never stops dreaming for me.
When other people or things steal my attention, He remains committed.
When I fall short, He stops to pick me up, and dusts me off.
When I am imperfect, He is my strength.
When I am tired, He is my rest.
When I doubt Him, He sticks around anyways.

He is our loving Father, and nothing can separate that.

He is like the perfect parent. He doesn’t love us because of our occupations, accolades, triumphs, characteristics or faithfulness. God loves us because we are His precious Children.

Romans 8:15-17 describes for us the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father when it says, "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

There is nothing we can do to make God love us one ounce more, and nothing we can't do to make Him love us one ounce more. He loves us, because of who we are, not because of how we act, or what we do.

So have hope and joy today in the fact that you are not perfect. Never will be. But Jesus loves you anyways, because you are His beautiful child.

There is such a great reward coming for the sons and daughters of the King!

"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading."
--Oswald Chambers