“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Last week in Chaplain’s Corner I listed ways that we show our love for God.  This is the first and greatest commandment, after all, so as believers we want to get this right, right? The first step to loving God is to really realize how much He loves us.  To paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning, how much does he love you?  Let us count the ways:

1. God created you and has ordained every day of your life (Psalm 139):

“¹³For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. “

God has an intimate knowledge of you.  He lovingly created you in his image, breathed life into you, and cares about your future.

2. God actively seeks a relationship with you and me (Revelation 3:20):

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

God is always there.  He is available and taking the first step to be with you.  The only thing you have to do is to hear him and open the door to let Him in.

3. God knows about our sin nature and slavery to sin, but because he loves us so much, he has already paid the price to purchase our freedom, and it was a costly sacrifice.  (John 15:13)

“Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends.”

God could have left us in our sin. Instead, he came up with the perfect plan to demonstrate his justice and his mercy.  All He needed was the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. Can you even imagine what it would take to put your child through a crucifixion? But he did that for you and for me.

4. God forgives us our sins when we confess and ask for forgiveness.  And better yet, he chooses not to hold our sins against us. (Hebrews 8:12)

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

What a relief, right?  Because we have committed some doozies, some shameful deeds.  We all have.  We’ve said and done things we shouldn’t have said or done, failed to do things we should have, and on and on.  And every sin we commit against someone here on earth is also a sin against God.  We hurt him so when we sin.  But repenting and praying for forgiveness is all God requires of us, and because of his great love for us he generously forgives us and chooses not to remember our sins against us.

5. God wants us to have a good life.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

 It might do us all some good to meditate on this scripture:  “We love because He first loved us.”

Blessings,

Judy