God’s Love is Great – October 7, 2016

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:1-3

God’s Love is Great

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us!” Love which the world produces has limits. It lasts only as long as people get satisfaction out of it or as long as it serves their self-interests.

God’s love, on the other hand, is unselfish, changeless, eternal. We can see his love in action at the cross where he was not motivated by convenience but by his commitment to save us. His love serves our best interests, not his. He always loves.

He knows everything about us, and still he showers us with love. He loves in spite of the fact that we have offended him in private and in public. He loves us through Jesus Christ who laid down his life to make things right between us and our heavenly Father. God the Father’s love may be foreign to us, but it is powerfully effective. It leads us to repent, to turn away from sin, and transforms us from outsiders to members of his family.

“And that is what we are!” Our Father in heaven sees us through the lens of the holy sacrifice that his Son made to pay for our sins on the cross, and he is pleased to call us his children. In Christ and through faith in him, that is what we are! God sent Jesus to buy us freedom from the curse and power of sin and to adopt us into his family.

When you are feeling insignificant or someone makes you feel worthless, always remember, God loves you and is pleased to say, “You are my child.”

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I believe that I am your child. Help me today to reflect what it means to be your child. Help me to be patient. Help me to forgive. Help me to love. Amen.