“He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph 3:17). The Lord really loves you. Calvary proves that! But does He like you? Does He seek your fellowship in order to, as the prophet writes, “rejoice over you with gladness,” or does He feel only an obligation to look after you?
Some say that what He finds attractive in you is only what Christ has brought to you in salvation. But were you not His creation in the first place (see Jn 1:3)? He formed you, designed your personality, invested you with talents of His own design. True, the Fall damaged His image in us, but it is the same clay with which He fashions “another vessel” (Jer 18:4). Of course there is no room for pride, but there is for joy in knowing that the work of the Spirit within us is to restore, not replace, the unique persons He made us to be.
Lord, thank You for making me who I am, for remaking me to be more like You, and for loving me for who You know me to be.