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God’s Long Reach

Consider the long reach of Christ to bring sinners to himself. In coming to know Christ, we know the unrelenting love of Christ. Our Lord has a far reach. He’s got a long arm. “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” (Jer 32:27). “Is the arm of the Lord too short that it cannot save?” (Num 11:23). God’s long arm of love is on full display right now.

He leaves the ninety and nine to find the one lost sheep. He calls to you: “Come to me… and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). His says to his servants and ambassadors, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled” (Lk 14:23).

The Bible says God’s reach is so long, he can find sinners to save where ever they are! “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). “…you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off’; 10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isa 41:9-10).

Where ever you are, God’s reaching for you. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).

He reaches for rebellious Israel in love, saying: “I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim [Israel]; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hos 11:9). And again, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (Hos 6:1).

God reach is so far, he can reach every person. Jesus was “crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb 2:9).

Just come to him by faith. What is faith? I’ll tell you it’s not complicated. Jesus said, it’s so simple, that if you come to him, you have to have the faith of a little child. Let me tell you what faith is in a simple way.

Faith is a surrender to the love of God in Christ. It’s a trust and a surrender to the fact that Jesus, in his death, gave himself up willingly for you.

“God so loved [put your name] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16).  That’s faith. Surrender to God’s love. Stop trusting in your own ability to make God love you. You don’t have to fix yourself up first. God already loves you. Surrender to that love, and he’ll fix you up.

by Pastor Matt Black