I like to think that when I preach I make a couple of points, package it in some clever way and use a creative delivery that will keep everyone engaged. Yesterday, I put all of that aside and made just one point plain and simple. “God loves you, life is hard, but love always wins.”

Romans 8:26-39 was the scripture I used for yesterday. I especially like the translation of verses 37-39 found in The Message (who would have thought?!):

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus has already embraced us.

God loves you, life is hard, but love always wins.

If you have 90 seconds, click here (begin at 1:40) to hear Maya Angelou tell the story of what shaped her early on in her career. The simple truth, she explains, that still overwhelms her today is that God, indeed, does love her. You can see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice, she has some grasp of the overwhelming, awesome, great news that God loves her.

God loves you, life is hard, but love always wins.

And if you don’t know that, I encourage you to take some time this week, this day (right now!), and ask that God would show you just how much you are loved. Then wait for it. When you ask for something like that, you might just get the shock of your life as you experience the unbelievable, overwhelming, life-changing, joy-giving, all-sustaining, power-breaking, attitude-lifting, body-healing, world-shattering, counter-cultural, deeply-personal, love-sustaining power that is the love of God for YOU.

God loves you, life is hard, but love always wins.

When we get that, when we really get that, deep inside of us, perhaps we will begin to live fuller lives. We will begin to live lives that aren’t dictated by what is going on outside of us. We won’t be scared when we hear harmful and hateful rhetoric like what seems to abound right now. We won’t be phased when we wonder about the state of our culture as everyone seems to be hurting their neighbor rather than loving them. We won’t be shaken when we hear the news and read the signs that tell us our world is seemingly in trouble. We won’t worry when we are told that families are being torn apart, children are being left alone, that life as it used to be or as it “ought to be” is no more.

God’s love for you is “Here, There & Everywhere” (to quote The Beatles). Like a good southern boy, I might phrase it like this, “ain’t nothin’ you can do bout it. God loves you.”

There is the very real world around us that would have us believe things are getting worse. There is a feeling in our nation that we are headed towards dark times. There is a rhetoric in the news and spoken about too often that seems to indicate we are in troubling times.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul acknowledges that we live in a broken world, sin is real. But what is more powerful than that? God’s love. Believe it, know it, sleep better tonight because of it! God loves you. Nothing you can do about it. Rest in the gentle reassurance, the “Blessed Assurance” as the song goes, that God’s love is here, there and everywhere.

God’s love is always with you, even though life is hard, love wins.

Good, gracious and loving God, we ask that you help us know your love that we can’t escape. We ask and believe this in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.