Fanning the Flame

God Loves You

Genesis 1:1-Revelation 22:21

God loves you. He infinitely, unconditionally, immeasurably loves you. Not who you could be if you would do a little better, not just who you are on good days or on Sunday mornings when you make it to church – He loves you, as you are, right now. He loves all the good, the bad, and the ugly. All of your strengths and weaknesses, during your deepest moments of shame and regret, and when you stand on your highest mountain of resolve and victory, He loves you. He loves you as you read these words, as you accomplish your tasks for the day. He loved you the moment you opened your eyes this morning and He will love you when you close them to sleep. In fact, He loved you before you even existed. Before you were born, before He created you, you were on His mind. He was thinking of you, smiling because of you, taking joy and pleasure in you. Before this world was even created, He knew sin and death would separate you from Him. And so He laid out a plan that would cover the cost and grant you salvation to live with Him forever, never to be separated again; a plan that would require Him to sacrifice His own Son to die so that you could live. For many of us it may be easy to gloss over that because we have heard it for so long, but take a moment to step back and really consider the cost of what God did. Would you sacrifice your child so that someone else could live? Particularly someone who may or may not even acknowledge what you did, who may or may not love you in return? It is fair to say that God’s sacrifice was beyond our natural capacity or even willingness to love and give of ourselves.

And so, with this truth in mind and a desire to remind you of God’s amazing love, I searched the Bible for the best verses to support that truth. I looked through the Old Testament and through the New Testament, and there was certainly no shortage of scriptures that spoke of His heart. In fact, after trying to figure out how to narrow down the ones to include, I realized none of them are better than any other. God’s love is not something tucked away in a handful of verses from the Bible. His love speaks loud and clear in every single book, on every single page. The entire thing is a letter of Love’s pursuit, sacrifice, faithfulness and victory. Next time you pick up the Bible, regardless of what book you are reading or what chapter you are in, hear His voice whisper to you through every single word. He loves you! He loved you in the past, He loves you in the present, and He will love you for eternity! Amazing grace, amazing love. How truly sweet the sound!