God’s Love

God’s love is not only the foundation of your salvation and your sustaining hope through hardships, but it is also the very quality of God into which you are being transformed.  Understanding that God’s love initiated the relationship while you were still a sinner eliminates any performance or merit-based criteria.   Romans 5:8 declares “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Fear and anxiety are cast out by His perfect, divine love.

This assurance is strengthened further when you realize you have been adopted into His family as well.  “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”  John 3:1     Knowing you can call out “Abba – Father” to the Creator of the universe transforms obedience from a begrudging burden into a joyful delight.   

Being filled with His boundless love, you also find hardship and suffering redefined.  They are no longer a punitive event or time, but rather a purposeful season of growth and deepened relationship.  As you yield to being molded into the image of Christ, your love for others takes on the same sacrificial, unconditional and persistent nature as that which you have received.

Moving you beyond self-centeredness into selfless service and compassion, God’s love empowers you to forgive those who hurt you, even when it is costly or difficult.  Living in the presence of that love compels you extend His grace to the marginalized, breaking down barriers of sin and brokenness.   

Indeed, God’s love is the ultimate purpose of the entire faith journey – to receive it, to grow in it, to be sustained by it, to share it, to declare it and to be transformed into it.  How deep is your love?