30 Days of Thankfulness ~ Day 9 ~ Love

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” ‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:6-12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Love. What do you think of when you read that word? Our modern day culture would have us thinking of love being whatever brings about those warm fuzzy feelings of desire and longing. Love today is something shallow and selfish - something undependable and completely conditional. One moment we love something, the next we scorn it. Is it any wonder that it is hard for us to understand the huge idea that God is love and for that to be a good thing? Or what about the idea that God could possibly love us unconditionally, endlessly, to the point of pursuing us even when we are running away from Him? 

I think one of the biggest lies the enemy would have us believe is that God’s love for us is based on us. The sad part is that the majority of us, myself included, live with that understanding. What if instead we chose to live in the truth that the way God loves us has absolutely nothing to do with us and has everything to do with who He is? In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us... He loved us! Us in our sin laden filth and rags. We who daily reject Him in some form or fashion. The created flipping the bird to the Creator. He loved US.

He is the final authority on love. We need only read that passage above in 1 John to see that His love goes against all the selfish notions of love that we are familiar with. His love is sacrificial, giving, never ending, lavish, steadfast. The love of God is these things because each of these things themselves are part of who He is as God. 

It is impossible, I think, to fully comprehend or understand God’s love. It is something I will never be able to adequately thank Him for, this Love of His that pursues endlessly, recklessly, this broken mess of a human for the sake of relationship and restoring me to be more like the image bearer He deigned me to be. 

I’ll leave you with this song to listen to - it has been ministering to me for a number of weeks now. As you listen may you be reminded again of the incredible love our God has for you.