Isaiah 43

This week there were a few unexpected things brought me to my knees.  As I was there, my favorite passage of the Bible was, and still is, a great comfort to me: 

"But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."
- Isaiah 43:1-7


I cannot breathe when I finish reading this.  


My sin is disgusting.  I am a person who takes some things way too seriously, who is irritated by small things, who has a tendency to be a bit blunt, and who consistently struggles with running to things that I should flee from.  And when I reflect on my sin, it is hard for me to understand that those do not make Christ love me any less.  Where my sin abounds, Christ's grace and love abounds more.  I am a diseased and afflicted woman with a perverse heart, but Christ came to seek and to save the sick like me. 


I am constantly falling more in love with Christ, but the most amazing thing is that He isn't falling in love with me.  He is already so deeply in love with me that He can't love me anymore.  What a beautiful promise to claim.