He loves me anyway

God seems to speak to me a lot through songs. Certain songs lift me up & leave me feeling refreshed in my walk with my Heavenly Father.  There's nothing better than jamming out to a song that sings about our awesome God.  One song that really spoke to me the other day is You Love me Anyway by Sidewalk Prophets. 

Here are the lyrics:

The question was raised

As my conscience fell
A silly, little lie
It didn’t mean much
But it lingers still
In the corners of my mind

Still you call me to walk
On the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future’s so far
My heart is so frail
I think I’d rather stay inside

But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
How You love me
It took more than my strength
To simply be still
To seek but never find
All the reasons we change
The reasons I doubt
And why do loved ones have to die?

But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me

I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway

See now, I am the man that called out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
Yes then, I turned away with this smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life


I found myself listening to this song, driving down the road with tears streaming down my face.  It hit me hard as I realized that each piece of torture Jesus bore was because of me...for ME he took the crown of thorns on his brow, for ME he took the nails in each wrist.  He bore it ALL for a sinner, who would betray him like Judas, who would mock him & call for him to die like the Jews.  He loved me even when I didn't love him.  Before I was born He LOVED ME!  He bore it all so I could spend eternity with him.  He loves me that much! 

Don't get me wrong, all this is stuff that I already knew but it's almost like it's something I forgot.  As Christians I think sometimes we don't see the depth of His love in the cross.  Like we KNOW that he died for our sins so we can have eternal life in our brains, but we picture his death on the cross like it  is so often depicted in pictures like this:

Completely intact & peaceful.  When it's so not how it was.  He SUFFERED!  He was beaten...his blood was literally spilled everywhere for us.  He was in anguish because the sins of everyone was on his shoulders.  More like this:


My God loved me First!  I didn't have to be good enough or try hard enough for him to love me...he loved me ANYWAY!