Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today- love does everything to recapture my heart, with the purpose of doing everything to restore my heart.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 TPT
[13] We always have to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, for you are dearly loved by the Lord. He proved it by choosing you from the beginning for salvation through the Spirit, who set you apart for holiness, and through your belief in the truth. [14] To this end, he handpicked you for salvation through the gospel so that you would have the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Observation
Salvation comes as you receive the good news that you have always been loved, and that love has already saved you. The proof that you are loved is in love choosing you and declaration of ‘saved’ over your life. Salvation, that has already happened, past tense salvation, gifts me a restored intimate right relationship with God. This is gifted to me by love, I don’t earn, deserve or play any role, I receive the good news that love has loved me back into love’s arms. And that these arms of love will hold me safely in salvations’ story forever. This is not a provable truth, it is a faith truth, a truth I receive with questions, doubts, and mystery firmly present. It’s an encountered experienced truth that is written by love on the lining of my heart. Don’t ask me for proof, and don’t look for an intellectual argument from me to try and convince you, I will only invite you to your own personal encounter with love. For love speaks to the heart, and the heart has truth that reason cannot find meaning.
Salvation ongoing, present tense salvation, is love’s ongoing presence restoring me into me. This is the glory of love, the “so that” of love, is to see me become the lover I have always been, and then reflect this love into a world desperate for me to be me, to be the lover me. Love created me in love’s image, and Salvation has an ongoing purpose in my life in that I am transformed by the presence of love, as I experience all the glory of love from personal encounter. This is the “so that”, this is the “to this end,” of salvation, me experiencing love’s glory and then becoming love’s glory, then reflecting love’s glory.
Past tense salvation makes me right positionally, relationally, it gives me the identity, security and significance of being loved by love. Present tense salvation restores me through relational proximity into the intended “end” of salvation’s purpose, the restored lover me, a reflector to the world of love itself.
Application
I will stand in the completed work of past tense salvation all my life, it will never be challenged in my thinking by shame, condemnation or unworthiness. I will accept and live in the verdict of “I am love’s beloved.” I am forgiven by love, restored to love’s table, restored to love’s embrace, forever, and always. I will walk in the invitation of present tense salvation to live in love, from love, for love. I will allow the fullness of love to enable me to be the fullness of me. Past tense salvation positions me in love, present tense salvation propels me in love, to love.
Is there a more beautiful story? Is this not the summary of the story that all humanity is desperate to make theirs personally? Thank you for restoring me to love and restoring me to me. Thank you for all the identity, security and purpose this now shapes for my life. I am at last seen and loved as the real me, I am safe to be me, and I am significant as me.
Response
Thank you, love. I love being loved, and I love being love. I love this story of love’s salvation that is mine.
Meditate – To this end, he handpicked you for salvation through the gospel.
Meditation
Meditate – To this end, he handpicked you for salvation through the gospel.
Consider:
Is the story of past tense salvation a solid foundation for your life, identity, and relationship with God?
Are you loving experiencing the presence of love, and love’s restorative effect on your life?
JOURNEY DEEPER
