I have found two main themes this song encompasses: God's feelings towards us are astonishing, and God's grace is bigger than our sins.
His feelings for us are astonishing
The song starts us out with God being jealous for us. This line always seemed like just an opener to me, but it wasn't until recently that this line unveiled itself to me in scripture. The Bible says in Exodus 34:14:
"Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
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| Our God becomes jealous when we stray because of his love for us. |
But when I realized it said "He is jealous for me," a whole new meaning came. God has so much love for you and me that if we have our priorities somewhere else, and we don't spend a lot of time with Him and try to build a relationship with Him, He gets jealous. He desires our attention, time and love just as any relationship does, too. He is our Creator, our Abba or Daddy after all.
This realization is what sparked my idea to share the scripture I find in worship songs. It also led to my researching different scriptures on certain topics. And the findings are below as well as in continued posts on other songs.
On the idea of God's jealousy, I also found the following Bible verse:
"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away." -- Song of Songs 8:6-7This perfect illustration of God's love for us is strong and so very true; God's jealousy keeps Him from giving up on us no matter what we do because He loves us so much. The strong currents of life and sin that rivers yield cannot destroy the flame that God's love produces.
This brings me to my next point of realizing just how much God loves us. The title of this song alone says it all - How He Loves. Repeated over and over in the song is the lyric "Oh, how He loves us." This declaration can be overlooked so easily upon repetition, but I think there is beauty in the repetition to give us a chance to let it sink in our hearts how much God loves us.
As you listen to the song, posted below, and specifically that lyric, read the following verses:
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." -- John 15:13
"How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand - when I awake, I am still with you." -- Psalm 139:17-18
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -- John 3:16
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved." -- Ephesians 2:4-5It is so imperative you understand the depth of His love for us as children of God. He reveals this love to us in so many ways through his scripture. Worship music is supposed to be just that - a time to worship Him for who He is in our lives and what He means to us. In it, we should also recognize His words and His teachings to help us grow closer to Him.
His grace is bigger than our sins
The lyrics that sparked this theme are "drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes. If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking." His grace is so amazing and innumerable that there is nothing we could do to be worthy of it. There is nothing we could do that is bad enough that His grace would not cover those sins. There is nothing we could do to make him give up on us. His grace and His mercy wins. Every time. Romans 6:14 says this:
"For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace."
Our sins are washed away by God's grace, by Jesus' death on the cross. We are not slaves to this world anymore. We may make mistakes and try to follow society instead of God for a while, but His grace will always take us back when we are ready to turn back to Him.
In regards to never being worthy of His grace I have Romans 3:23-24:
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
We could never be enough. We are all sinners. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. But God LOVES us. Jesus DIED for us. He conquered death and Satan and all sins through His perfect life lived on Earth. Accept this gift freely and love Him for it. The scriptures scream for us to come back to Him and understand that though we may feel like we have fallen too far in the darkness, His light is so much brighter. His love is so much stronger. Come back and give thanks and love Him all the more.
More scripture on his grace and mercy:
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither heights nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -- Romans 8:37-39
"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." -- Ephesians 1:7
"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." -- Colossians 1:13-14
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." -- Ephesians 4:22-24
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." -- 1 John 1:9
"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." -- Revelation 1:5-6
To finish the song and scriptures linked to it, the last set of words I want to highlight are the lyrics "And I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way that He loves us." Because of God's grace and mercy, we don't have to regret our past. He loves us all so much that nothing we have done, will do, or could ever do will take away from us in His eyes. It hurts him to continue to do these things, yes.
But we are all made new through Jesus' death on the cross and our salvation. Nothing and no one can hurt us or our reputation in Christ because we are his children. Yes, we will slip up, but keep coming back to him and focus on glorifying him. I will leave you all with a verse that reminds us to not look in the rear view mirror, but to keep looking in front of us and remembering where God is taking us:
"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." -- Philippians 3:13
Just as God's love never will, don't give up on Him or yourself.
Verses mentioned above in order of the Bible:
- Exodus 34:14
- Psalm 139:17-18
- Song of songs 8:6-7
- John 3:16
- John 15:13
- Romans 3:23-24
- Romans 6:14
- Romans 8:37-39
- Ephesians 1:7
- Ephesians 2:4-5
- Ephesians 4:22-24
- Philippians 3:13
- Colossians 1:13-14
- 1 John 1:9
- Revelation 1:5-6
Thanks for this! I think extracting the scripture from all worship is the most important thing to do and you have done it with such a heart of gratitude to God and I am grateful for that because what you produced was very encouraging for me!
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