"But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
God loves you! We have heard this over and over. But how can we know this to be true? How can we believe it?
In fact in Acts 10:34 God tells us that He is no respector of persons, meaning He doesn't decide if one person has earned it, or not. He simply loves His Children.
We must come to this reality. 1 John 4:8 tells us that GOD IS LOVE! So that means then that GOD GIVES!
LOVE IS GOOD! IT GIVES. GOD IS GOOD, AND HE GIVES IT FREELY TO YOU AND I!
God loves you! We have heard this over and over. But how can we know this to be true? How can we believe it?
First of all we can tell if somone loves us by their actions. We literally can see love through the action love prompts or intiaites. For example, in John 3:16 we read: "For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE his only begotten Son, that who soever should believe in Him, shall not die, but have everlasting life."
The primary action of love is giving. You see LOVE ALWAYS GIVES! You can know that someone loves you through their action of giving. That will be the evidence of their love. That giving is not based on your behavior or what you believe. Simply put LOVE GIVES without requiring anything from its receipant.
So when we hear that God loves us, then we should see proof of His love through an action that involves giving.
So does God truly love you? Well,to answer that lets look at His attitude towards us as reflective in the Bible.
Think about it, while we were still sinners, and not having any faith in Him at all, God COMMANDED His love towards us.
Romans 5:8 records; "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God commanded His love toward us period. It didnt say that He commanded His love toward us after we earned it somehow. It just simply says He loved us.
We read this in Deuteronomy 7:7, 8 : "The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for yewere the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, ..." God just simply loves!
Now these two passages of scripture explicitly show that God simply loves us, and it is clear that we did not do anything to earn His love.
In fact in Acts 10:34 God tells us that He is no respector of persons, meaning He doesn't decide if one person has earned it, or not. He simply loves His Children.
So now that we see He loves us, we should also see evidence of this love. In both Deut and Romans we see an immediate action following His love. In Deut we see that God SET His love upon us, and in Romans we see God commanding love through the gift of Christ dying for us.
So that means then God loves us by giving. And once again I want you to notice that He gives you His love regardless if you are in sin or are in love with Him. Even if you are rebelling against Him, even if you are rejecting Him. He still loves you and gives you His love through His Son Jesus Christ.
We must come to this reality. 1 John 4:8 tells us that GOD IS LOVE! So that means then that GOD GIVES!
In fact Gods love is greater than any sin. His love is higher than any mountain of tragedy, or any valley of shame. He loves you regardless of what you may have done, good or bad.
What is amazing, is that He so loved us that He commanded His Son to take your place of punishment.
The Word tells us that the wages of sin is death. And so by dying on the cross, Christ became death, in our place, so that we could be free.
Unfortunately some people, even after receiving this great gift, seem to think that they need to perform for God to get something from Him. When the truth is all God wants to do, is to love them, spend time with them and give them a wonderful fullfilliing life!
Some would think that if they committed a sin, or maybe they have failed in some area of their life, that God would not love them any longer and withold His blessing from them. This is far from the truth.
Beloved, understand the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He did it all!! God can never see you by any other standard, but through the perfect blood of Jesus.
When He looks at you, He sees His own son, or daughter. He loves you with an unconditional love, a love that takes no account for a suffered wrong, a love that is patient, and is kind, a love that never fails.
You see Gods love was greater than the sin that was keeping you bound, and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, this love did not fail, but DESTROYED sins power over you, and RESCUED you.
LOVE IS GOOD! IT GIVES. GOD IS GOOD, AND HE GIVES IT FREELY TO YOU AND I!
Thats why the Bible tells us that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. There is nothing that we have done that can separate us from the love of the Father.
You can recieve this love, this life of freedom by simply repenting from that old unbelief, and receive His love, by simply believing that God gave you His Son Jesus.
So let us run boldly to the Father, and recieve His love today. Run to the throne room of Grace, and find your help in your time of need.
Run to Him, and He'll be your every need, want, and desire. He'll turn you wrongs to right, and your hurts into joy. He is a LOVER, not condemer. He is a GIVER!
