God's Love

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus.

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

John 3: 16 - 17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." 

Going Deeper:

In a time where so much heaviness surrounds us, leaning in to God’s Love needs to be the answer.  But how does one write about God's love in just a few paragraphs?  A topic and a truth so big, so enormous that not only can it change current circumstances, but it also has the power to change all of our futures for ETERNITY!  The truth is, even if this is my best written thing ever, it would be futile in comparison to the color, glory, depth and magnitude of God's love because He IS Love.

First, let’s start with the trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The perfect community with so much love amongst them, they created life out of an overflow.  The result of their creation? Us.  We came to this earth out of an abundance of love.  Our Lord God, perfect and fully satisfied, made us not out of a need to fill a void, but because He had so much love to give (Genesis 1: 26-31).  Love IS His very nature and we were birthed from that love.  We were perfectly made and perfectly loved because God knows no other way.  Then, sin entered the world (Genesis 3).  Sin meant we needed to be reconciled back to God, and this is where His character of love gets even more personal.

As I prayed asking the Spirit to help me conjure up the words beautiful enough to explain His love for us, He graciously stopped me and said, “Let me explain from MY own words,” and he led me to John 3:16. Jesus speaking says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  In these words, you hear it from God himself-- that in His overwhelming love for us, God sacrifices His Son, His only child, to a gut-wrenching death.  The singular motivation for him doing this?  The answer may seem simple, but the truth is both heavy and freeing: nothing else but His love for us is and was his motivation.  God chose us over his own life.  

For some of us, those words may not hit as heavy, but for others, it may feel like a punch to the gut.  God died for everyone?  Yes, everyone.  The sinners and lovers of the dark that reject him, He died for.  The same hands that murder his children to elevate their own power, Jesus died for.  The same people that sit back and say nothing in a time of injustice because it’s too uncomfortable, Jesus died for.  The broken, wicked, lost and shamed, Jesus died for.  That’s a big pill and my fickle mind has a hard time swallowing this truth.  That we were and are worth His life.  Jesus took on the lashing and the ridicule of His death so we could be rescued back to Him.  Love so big that the only way to save it was to die for it.  Not an easy feat. 

This love may seem so illogical.  That’s the beautiful thing about God’s Love, it doesn’t make sense because it goes beyond any explanation.  It is who He is (Exodus 3:14).  Despite our desire for other things, He continues to romance and pursue us over and over again (Romans 8:28).  Through His love for us, He continuously rescues us (Galatians 1:4).  In His love for us, He promises us peace (Revelation 21:4).  God cannot stop and does not stop loving us because, again, He IS Love.  His love is a love so vast that it is enough to rescue our past, change our present and guarantee our future “… Fear not, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name, you are mine.” Forever. (Isaiah 43:1). 

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to you from this passage this morning.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?