My Father...is Love!

"Anyone who does not love, does not know God, because God is love"

1 John 4:8 (ESV)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

My Father is Love! Think about that, He IS love! He is the embodiment of love, His love is endless, it is bountiful, it is the essential part of His character. We can love, because He first loved us. He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us!

If you think back to being a new Christian, or a small child in Sunday school, one of the first verses that you learn and memorize is John 3:16. I'm sure that as a child and a new believer that it is hard to grasp the idea and magnitude of that kind of love. All throughout our lives we seek after and yearn for love and for approval, often missing the incredible love that our Father has lavished on us. So many verses speak of this great love. Paul writes to the Ephesian church "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19). Paul prays that they may comprehend how wide, how long, how high and how deep the love of Christ is for them. His love to me in one word is: unfathomable!

He loved me when I was a sinner, an enemy! "But God showed his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. He sent His Son to die in my place, not because I loved Him or was loyal to Him, but because He loved me, and His love for me was great. "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."  1 John 4:10. Propitiation is a big word, essentially it means that He took on our debt and paid it Himself. Imagine if someone came along and paid off ALL your debt, and said they did it just because they loved you.  It would be hard to comprehend right? But that is what Christ did for us. My hairdresser of 16 years told my mom that after seeing The Passion of the Christ in theaters she sat in her car crying and said "That was love!"

As I write this I don't think I've even begun to capture the incredible love that God has for us, or even know the magnitude of His love. But I do know that because He loved me, He requires that I love others, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another...We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:11 and 19. 

Heavenly Father,

I pray that you help me to understand Your great and wonderful for love for me. Help me grasp it's magnitude and to remember each and every day how much you truly love me. Give me a heart to love others and to share your love with those that I meet day in and day out!  Amen!