Blast from the past! If you\u2019re a guy \u2013 you probably don\u2019t remember this whimsical, girly activity, but I\u2019ll bet, one time or another, my fellow starry-eyed, girl-friends remember. We took a flower (usually a daisy or a rose) and proceeded to pluck off one petal at a time and repeated the words: \u201cHe loves me; He loves me not\u201d. That activity helped us dream that cute boy loved us, or (sigh) did not! That little non-sensical, but playful game gave us hope that we would be loved.
Now I segue to a love that is far greater and a much bigger deal than the attraction we had for that cute guy! God is crazy in love with us. Proof-positive is found in John 3:16 \u201cFor GOD SO LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever (that\u2019s YOU and ME) believes in Him, will never perish but have eternal life.\u201d Jeremiah 31:3 emphasizes His love, even more, \u201cI have loved you with a love that lasts forever!\u201d And, as in that beautiful old song, “The 12th of Never”, FOREVER is a long, long time!
God\u2019s acceptance and love for is real. Oh, yes, Jesus loves me. This I know. Because the Bible tells me so! We don\u2019t have to play He loves me . . . He loves me not. In our relationship with Him, we know He loves us! Every page of the Bible says HE LOVES ME. But, still we often treat His love like that \u201cHe loves me; He loves me not\u201d game.It\u2019s like this:I get a job promotion \u2013 He loves me.I get a flat tire \u2013 He loves me not.I get a check in the mail I wasn\u2019t expecting \u2013 He loves me.I sprain my ankle \u2013 He loves me not.I am given a new cell phone — He loves me.I drop my new cell phone and the screen cracks — He loves me not.
No matter how our day goes or even how our life goes \u2013 no matter the ups and downs \u2013 the sweet surprises or the disappointments — no matter whether we feel sad or glad; God\u2019s love is unconditional (unlike those cute boys who were here today, and gone tomorrow). God is with us. He has plans for us beyond our greatest imaginations. Jeremiah 29:11 \u201cFor I know the plans I have for you,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.\u201d Let\u2019s throw away those flowers and emphatically believe and know “…how deep, how wide and long is the love of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:18).
HE LOVES ME! HE LOVES ME! HE LOVES ME!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blast from the past! If you\u2019re a guy \u2013 you probably don\u2019t remember this whimsical, girly activity, but I\u2019ll bet, one time or another, my fellow starry-eyed, girl-friends remember. We took a flower (usually a daisy or a rose) and proceeded to pluck off one petal at a time and repeated the words: \u201cHe loves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15449,21529,21530],"tags":[1210,1769,1648,3828,804,21526,2309,21527,1651,1652,40,271,21525,7371,21528],"class_list":["post-14831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jesus-loves-me","category-love-game","category-loves-me","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-flower","tag-for-god-so-loved","tag-for-god-so-loved-the-world","tag-forever-loe","tag-forever-love","tag-gods-acceptance","tag-he-loves-me","tag-he-loves-me-not","tag-inspiration","tag-jeremiah-2911","tag-no-greater-love","tag-oh-the-plans-i-have-for-you","tag-real-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14833,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831\/revisions\/14833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}