A few Sunday’s ago I got to be part of a team sermon – it was a lot of fun working with two of the other Pastors from our church and blending a sermon together. It turned out to be a great way to do a sermon online.

My part was about God’s love for us. I had actually done a full teaching on it a few weeks back at our Sunday night discipleship class. So I had all the material, all I had to do was go from a 40 minute teaching to a 7 minute sermon – no problem! 😉

But as I read, studied and prayed over the words and scriptures again, something happened. It was like Jesus took something that had been head knowledge and turned it into deeply embedded and life changing heart knowledge.

Let me try and explain…

In Ephesians 1:4 (MSG) we read

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.

And in Jeremiah 1:5 (NLT)

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb…”

These two scriptures reveal something completely profound and actually way outside of our capacity to really understand.

God the eternal God, has always known us and always loved us! 

Before the foundations of the earth were laid he had us in his thoughts and had settled on us as the focus of his perfect love – each of us individually!

You probably just read that quickly and didn’t really think too much of it, or maybe thought, ‘wow, that’s cool.’

But let’s take a minute to try and grasp the enormity of what those two scriptures are telling us, because it really is the most phenomenal thing!

BEFORE God spoke the earth into existence, before he said, ‘Let there be light…’ he was thinking about me and he was thinking about you and he loved us!

BEFORE I was formed, before I was conceived, I was known by God!

BEFORE I had done anything, BEFORE I could do anything, God, the eternal God knew me, loved me and chose me.

And this applies to every single person who has been or is yet to be!

Truly and utterly incredible!

I would love to ask you to go back and read over the scriptures and following sentences slowly, read them a couple of times, ponder this over the next few days, and pray for God to help you grasp even the smallest bit of this incredible truth!!

I promise you that it will be so worth it because as I have meditated on these scriptures over the last week something in me has changed. Some understanding has gripped me and there is a real peace and joy that honestly wasn’t there before.