I fly through the door after a long day of work and dive right into the nightly ritual: cook, clean, check text messages, read, watch TV.

It’s the last thing on the list that I love the most. Those few blessed hours when I can unwind and escape to a foreign place. Whether I’m off to Mars or Georgian Era England, all I care about is that I’ll be transported away from the confines of my predictable life in my cozy, predictable apartment.

Do you ever feel the need to escape?

Sometimes, it’s easier to tune in to a fantasy world and tune out the real world. But when does exchanging the real world for the reel world become dangerous? When does a pleasurable night of Netflix-binging transform into a TV addiction?

For me, I know I’m in danger when I feel like I NEED the escape, when the thought of spending a day without television feels almost impossible.

It’s in those moments that God prods me to evaluate my perspective. Then I turn to the Scriptures, and I ask myself why I feel the need to escape. Perhaps it’s out of boredom, stress, loneliness—or all three. Maybe it’s something I can’t quite articulate. Whatever the reason, I remember that I can find relief from life’s pain and boredom in the reality of Christ’s love for me. God’s love is something greater than the greatest fiction could muster.

Are you struggling with the desire to escape today? If so, read through these verses with me and meditate on how grand God’s love is for you:

1. Because God loves you, Jesus died to save you.
   For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior. — John 3:16-17 (GNTD)
2. Because God loves you, God wants you to live in union with him.
   And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us.And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. — 1 John 4:14-16 (GNTD)
3. Because God loves you, he will never leave you.
   Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:35, 37-38 (GNTD)