"The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."
Exodus 34:6-7
We certainly can use the word love loosely today. We say we love inanimate objects incapable of loving us back or use it to coerce and deceive others for selfish gratification and gain. Oh Beloved, if only you knew the love the Father has for you and just how deep it goes!
We are told in God’s Word that we are able to love because He loved us first. Love comes from God. We are told in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
And here is the truth!
For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 Amplified
Love does not mean we do not correct or rebuke when a wrong is done. Even in God’s judgment His mercy reigns. We are admonished in Hebrews to receive the correction of the Lord:
My son do not make light of the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart and give up when you are corrected by Him. For the Lord disciplines and corrects those whom He loves, and He punishes every son whom He receives and welcomes to His heart. Hebrews 12:5 Amplified
Love comes from God, and we need to love one another through His love. The only way we can do this is to know Him and His love intimately. We as God’s image-bearers can express Hesed to one another because this kind of love is relational; and if God is in us, so is His steadfast love. It starts with one person inspiring an act of love towards another without obligation. It is showing amazing grace towards mankind, it is about undeserved favor and a commitment to do good. Read more about this kind of love in 1 John 4:7-20:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and he in God. And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world, we are just like Him. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
Pray with me the prayer of St. Francis: Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, may I pardon. Where there is doubt, may I have faith. Where there is despair, may I bring hope. Where there is darkness, may I be the Light and where there is sadness, may I sow joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to be the consoler. To be understood as to understand and to love as to be loved. For it is in giving that we receive and in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying to self that we are born into eternal life. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Smile! Jesus loves you!
"You are God’s girl and He loves you! You sprinkle His seeds of love wherever you go!” Those words were spoken to me by my husband Joe many years ago. They came at a time when I was questioning my self-worth in God’s Kingdom, purposes, and plans. The Father made sure that in my darkest spiritual hour, I heard His Truth about my identity and self-worth. It has been my passion ever since to deliver that same message to any who may need to hear it. It is not about who we are, but Whose we are, and I am God’s girl!
