“We know how much God loves us and have put our trust in Him.” 1 John 4:16 NLT
“Love gives you life without limits!”
My thoughts today both say and ask “He loves me! He loves me not?”
Life is a journey of learning. And learning is about asking the right questions and believing the right answers. Along the way, you will confront the “loves me, loves me not question.” When life makes you face that question as it relates to yourself and God, your answer is of eternal importance. Every person knows in their heart that they want God to love them, even that they need God to love them. But many never fully believe that He does. They are like children plucking petals from a flower always asking, “He loves me? He loves me not?” You must settle the question in your heart once and for all that “He loves me!” – always has, always will.
You can be among those who know that God has always loved you, and always will, no matter what. See Ephesians 2:1-10 NIV. With all you learn, the certainty of God’s love is the single, most life-changing truth you ever learn. Whatever your life experience, and however much you wrestle with questions and doubts about other things, you must be persuaded and “know how much God loves (you) and have put (your) trust in Him!” Here is what I have learned about love.
(1) It is important what you think God thinks about you. Too many people are uncertain about what God thinks about them, in spite of all the Bible clearly says. That truth is plainly declared, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that none should perish . . He came not to condemn the world but that the world through Christ might be saved.” John 3:16-17. What more is there to say? What is critical, however, is what you think God thinks about you. Love cannot change you, however powerful it is, until you believe love can and will. It is true and correctly applicable to this matter of God’s love, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.” Love is powerful in your everyday life when you believe it to be, and allow it to be. Not so much when you don’t.
(2) The reality of spiritual life rests upon your certainty of God’s love. Your spiritual life cannot exceed the dimensions of your personal reception of God’s love for you. There is a dynamic of spiritual vitality that waits for the embrace of the human heart for its full release. Do you want more of Christ’s fullness? Go deeper in His love! God’s love for you is literally limitless – absolutely without bounds or restraints, except for the ones you impose upon it. Your victory over sin and habits is directly related to your conviction and certainty of God’s love, as expressed in His boundless grace and forgiveness to you. Love gives you life without limits!
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love may have power, together with all saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Read Ephesians 3:16-21 NIV.
And what results from such a conviction of love? God’s love brings you into abundance unavailable to you by any other means – “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!” Where do you get the idea that crumbs are all you deserve or could have? What would you dare to imagine such fullness of life might be? Love is what brings you there. He loves you!
My prayer for you today is: let God love you, as He wants to love you!