Nearly every religion makes some claim of being able to bring peace, love, harmony, and contentment within a person’s life. Some would have us do it in meditation while the other extreme is to torture our own bodies. Jesus made client statements in John 16:26-33. He wanted us to know that life is not always smooth, but God loves you anyway. In realizing how much God loves us we are able to be sustained in daily living. What is it like for God’s love?
God’s love is limitless. (Romans’s:35-39 He always has loved us. He always will love us. He takes no delight in our suffering. God wants us to be consciously aware of how he thinks of us. The beauty of God’s love is that he does so without any expectation about us having some merit or works of righteousness. Since he is totally righteous, God is fully aware that we cannot make ourselves righteous. God does not just love us in a particular area of our life. He doesn’t love us because we are happy because we are sad. He doesn’t love us because we are undergoing some type of sacrifice in our lives. He loves us because he loves us!
God’s love is influential meaning that it permeates every part of what we are. (Galatians 2:20) It would be a terrible thing if God was selective in the way or depth that he loves us. That would be conditional love. The love that he has for us takes into consideration that we cannot change ourselves spiritually. We may make reforms, we may make resolutions, we may have good intentions. But we cannot change the very root of what we are since our very nature sinful. In the same way, we cannot make things happen for favor. Nor can we prevent things from happening in our lives. They just do. His love, however, can make intervention in our behalf for what our needs are. We do not have to feel his love to be loved. This is a critical mistake that many people make. They say that there is no emotional depth in the relationship with God. The reason is that God is not loving us on an emotional level. God does not get warm and fuzzy when he thinks about us. He loves us because he wants to love us.
God’s love is very personal.(John 17:23) His love is not abstract. His love is not theoretical. His love is not a doctrinal stance. God loves every single one of us. When he allowed Jesus to die on the cross, he had in mind every single person that had lived before Jesus and every single person that would live after Jesus. That is why if we reject him, it is a personal affront to him. Even though we may try, we can never understand God’s plan for our lives out of his love. Just like his other characteristics, they are beyond our ability to comprehend. Thanks to him, whether we understand it or not, we are the beneficiary of the love the Almighty Creator has toward us. Because his love is so immense, we are secure in his hold on us. It would make no sense whatsoever for God to reach out to us because of his love and then allow us to experience the possibility of slipping through his fingers. That is why there is a universal appeal of his love that requires an individual response. The Bible says, “We love him because he first loved us.”
Avoid becoming insensitive to John 3:16 that declares God so loved us. We cannot take it for granted. We cannot assume upon it. We cannot allow ourselves to be bored by its theme. Our opportunity is to enjoy the magnitude and expanse of God’s love.
Christian Writer 