Monday, December 19, 2016

Advent Journal Day XXIII: God is Love

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love {1 Jn. 4:8}.

God’s love is so full, so wide; immeasurable. It is not though, as many think, merely and attribute of God; Love is His very nature. God’s Love for us is so strong, yet it is sad that there is so little Love for God in the world. Perhaps our hearts are just are not occupied with His Love for people. The better we are acquainted with His Love—its character, fullness, blessedness—the more our hearts will be drawn to Him in Love. 

That matters not to the Lord, because His love is uninfluenced by our behavior, our emotions, our obedience, or lack thereof.  There was nothing in us to draw His Love to us. God’s love is free, and there is nothing we did or can do to cause Him to Love us any more or less than He does right now.

 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” {Deut. 7: 7-8}.  

God did not Love us because we loved Him; we have been but hostile to God. He Loved us before we ever had the privilege of returning that Love to Him; He Loved us when we were loveless. 

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us” {1 Jn. 4:17-19}.

God’s Love is eternal; just as God had not beginning, neither did His Love. It was always there, and it will be there eternally. There is nothing you can say or do to change that God Loves you. Nothing.

The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” {Jer. 31:3}.

The great and Holy God that we serve, Loved us before earth circled the sun; He has set upon His heart to Love us from all eternity.

If you are feeling unloved today, and not worthy of His glance, know that you have more than His glance; You have His immutable, and eternal Love. He Loved you so much, that He sent Jesus Christ to redeem you from yourself, and bring you to Him. God doesn’t just Love you. God is Love; and you can depend on that forever.

*Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New American Standard Version (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).









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