There is Hope Because God Loves Me
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Have you ever experienced something that completely transformed your life?
The tall, clumsy-looking Bible Instructor walked into the sanctuary and plumped down two seats ahead of me. Several other Bible Instructors arrived afterward and took their seats. I eyed each of them, wondering which one I would spend the next six weeks walking the streets of Baltimore with. "Better not be that clumsy looking fellow," I thought. After a short briefing, it was time to choose a partner and get to work. The tall clumsy guy looked at me. "I want you to be my partner," he said. I wanted to look away but knew that would be rude. "My name is Kevin, by the way".
Kevin turned out to be the opposite, in many cases, of what I expected. He covered more ground than anyone else on the team and was more knowledgeable and skilled in presenting the gospel than anyone else I had met.
The thing that impressed me the most, though, was the confidence and passion with which Kevin spoke about the love of God. As Kevin presented God's love from the scriptures, I had a sense of God's love - and the value that God placed on me, that I never had before. I recognized that many of the bad choices I'd made were because of not recognizing my true value.
2015 became a very significant year for me. It was the year I experienced God's love in a way that changed my perspective forever.
The word love means so many different things today; so much so that we often don't know what one means when they say “I love you”.
The love God wants you to know is different. In talking about God's love, we want to start with the person Himself. The Bible tells us in 1 John 4:8,16.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
We can only experience life-changing love when we accept God into our lives. He is love.
This is What God is Like
1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us what true love looks like, which is what God is like. Compare this list with what is typical in the world today.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends
If what we learn about God's love from those verses doesn't amaze you, the following reality should: This type of love is not shown to deserving people, but to un-deserving ones.
What four groups of people does Romans 5:6-10 point out that Christ died for?
“for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die; but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.
The passage points out that Christ died for:
- The weak
- The ungodly
- Sinners
- His enemies
Activities
REFLECT: What does it mean to you that God's love extends to all these types of people?
PRAY: that God will help you receive His love and allow Him to love others through you;
DO:
- Share with someone today how you feel about God's love for you.
- Invite someone to learn about God's amazing love today.