God is Love....

Do you ever wonder what it is like to be loved unconditionally by someone? Someone whose love for you isn't influenced by anything you have ever done, or are doing right now, or will do in the future? Most of us, if we are honest, know that sometimes love weakens or fluctuates in moments throughout life. There may be people who do a very good job at loving unconditionally however, because they are human, and have a sin nature, I can guarantee there are moments when they fail to do so.

We can know what it is like to experience unconditional love though. For God's love for you and me is not influenced by anything we ever did or will do (Check out Deuteronomy 7:6-8 and 2 Timothy 1:9). God's love is unconditional. The moment He chose to love us, He became identified with us. We became the object of His affection...the "apple of His eye" (Psalm 17:8). Love doesn't exist in a vacuum. It must express itself, so God desired to espress Himself to you and me through a personal relationship. This was made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Oh, friend, just contemplating God's love for us should excite us. His love for us will never change. God loves us as much today as when He gave His Son for us (Galatians 2:20; Titus 2:13-14). His love will never weaken or fluctuate, for in Him "there is no variation or shadow due to change" (James 1:17). God's love for us is eternal. Therefore He loved us before we had any being, with a love that is everlasting (Jerimiah 31:3).

Once we know and believe the love which God has for us we experience increasingly more freedom in Christ. By trusting in what Christ did on the Cross, it sets us free from the sins that may be entrapping a person, making them feel guilt ridden. You see, by accepting what Christ did on the Cross sets us free from all sins past, present, and future, and from the present power of sin in our lives. What does this mean to you and me? Well, the temptation to be irritable, impatient, angry, and self-indulgent need no longer control us (Romans 6).

Wait there's more! Another liberating effect of the love of God on our lives involves the issue of fear. Have you ever been afraid of god or of what God might allow to happen in your life? The Scriptures answer your concern with the Cross of Christ, the supreme evidence of God's love for you. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) The nature of God's love causes Him to always desire what is best for you and me. The fact that He controls all things enables Him to accomplish His desire.

Think what this kind of love does for our basic need for self worth! Consider the worth one would feel discovering they are loved the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Creator of all things, the One of whom the Scriptures declare:

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all" (1 Chronicles 29:11).

This is the One who loves us!!! You are of supreme value as a person, for now you are loved by God. In fact, you are loved so much that God gave His own Son in order to establish a relationship with you and me. Why worry what people think of you because God is for you!

Now, there is another unbelievable affect on our lives concerning God's love. When you belive in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God comes to literally live inside of you (Romans 5:5). It is in this way that we have power to "love one another" (1 John 4:11) , or to truly love your husband or children (Titus 2:4), to love your friends and even your enemies. And, it truly enables us to experience the ultimate joy of responding in love to Him who first loved us!!!