Why Do I Love Jesus

Thought For Today - February 19
Why do I love Jesus? 
By: Robert A. Searles

Recently I was asked - "Why do you love Jesus?"
Many good men and women of the past have told us why they loved Jesus, the psalmist being one of them, he said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit -  "I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. the Lord preserved the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord." Psalm 116 

I can tell you that I, too, love Jesus for all the same reasons: but to be more specific as to my own personal testimony, let me say that I love the Lord Jesus Christ because he had chosen me before the foundation of the world, to give me faith to believe his word and be saved. I did not choose him, he chose me. According to Ephesians: 1: 3-5 which tells us -  "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

Unsaved friends, God has chosen for you to read these words and bring you within hearing of his gospel message. All whom God has allowed to hear the gospel message have been chosen to believe and be saved. 

Without faith it is impossible to please God and be saved. Faith is a gift from God. Ephesians 2: 8-9 tells us - ” For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."

I love Jesus because he gave me faith to believe. Once I was dead to God in trespasses and sin, a natural man who could not understand the things of God according to 1 Cor 2:14 -  "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." 

 Jesus awakened me from my natural state and gave me new life according to Ephesians 2: 1-3 - "And you hath he quickened ( or made alive ) who were dead in trespasses and sin: wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worked in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

 Therefore, I love Jesus because he chose me. I love Jesus because he gave me faith to believe. I love Jesus because once I was blind, but now I see: Once I was lost but now I am found. I love Jesus because he paid with his own blood all the debts I owe God. I love Jesus because he will keep me secure forever according to his promise of 1 John 5: 11-13.

"And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life and he that hath not the son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God."