Oh, How He Loves Us

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭MSG‬‬

God is love.

Those three words are bigger than life itself because they are of God.  God’s love for you is boundless and endless.  He teaches us how to love others by loving us.  I think many people miss this and don’t put two and two together to see that the love God gives us is supposed to be reflected in our lives, and toward others around us.  It’s not easy.  It’s not supposed to be.  But because of God, we are given the courage and wisdom to approach tough situations with love.  With God, not everything is a challenge to us.  We are blessed with things and people in our lives that make loving easy.  For those, we give God all of the glory and thank Him for that gift.

Remember to smile.  Show people, you are full of God’s love.  When someone asks why you smile all of the time, you get to tell them, “it’s because God’s love is in me.”

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

God knows the desires of our hearts.  He knows our dreams, He knows what makes us happy.  Be faithful to God, surrender every day to Him, and pray for God’s will for your life to be revealed.  Love Him, and because He loves you, He will give you the desires of your heart.

“Some of you were locked in a dark cell, cruelly confined behind bars, Punished for defying God’s Word, for turning your back on the High God’s counsel— A hard sentence, and your hearts so heavy, and not a soul in sight to help. Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time. He led you out of your dark, dark cell, broke open the jail and led you out. So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves; He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors, he snapped the prison bars like matchsticks!”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭107‬:‭10‬-‭16‬ ‭MSG‬‬

His love is so big that he forgives when you ask for forgiveness.  His love will break any chains you have and will free you from anything that is holding you back from loving Him more.  If you feel like you are stuck, it may be time to reflect on what you are doing in your life that may be getting in the way of your time with God.  Big or small, surrender it to God, and He will help you overcome it.  Give God the glory and give Him time for prayer.

“My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭MSG‬‬