The Love of God

      Everyone agrees that one of our greatest and deepest emotional needs is to be loved.  God as our Creator loves us passionately.  The prophet Jeremiah speaks for God saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love . . .” (Jeremiah 31:3).  The Bible is complex, but at its heart it is a love story: God’s love for us and our opportunity to love Him.  The Bible is clear that God’s primary posture towards us is love; we are more cherished that we can imagine.  Only some of us truly get it.  Author Tony Campolo tells of a friend of his who had a four-year-old daughter.  One night during a thunderstorm, the loving father went upstairs to his daughter’s bedroom to make sure she was not scared.  He found her leaning against the window pane intrigued by the storm.  He asked, “Jennifer, what are you doing?”  She responded, “I think God is trying to take my picture.”  (Let Me Tell You a Story, 181).  There’s a little girl who understands that God delights in her.  God offers us a multi- faceted love: 
      God offers us a sacrificial love.  The apostle John tells us “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son . . .”  (John 3:16a). God paid the ultimate price to deal with our sin problem.  He sent his own Son Jesus to take our punishment. Because of the cross of Christ, the justice and holiness of God is satisfied, and He can have an intimate relationship with us, despite our sin.               
      God offers us a transforming love.  God loves us just as we are.  Yet He loves us too much to leave us there.  Like a good parent He sees what we can become.  No parent wants their child to crawl and wear diapers forever.  They want their child to grow and mature.  He wants us to have an abundant life, a life of meaning, peace, power and purpose.  He wants us to maximize our potential and flourish.
      God offers us a secure love.  Most of us have had someone we thought loved us end up leaving us.  Maybe it was a parent, friend or even a spouse.  Those wounds of rejection cut deep.  But God is different.  Look at how God continues to walk beside his people, the Jews.  They have a history of faithlessness and yet God still loves them.  He even had the prophet Hosea marry an adulterous woman named Gomer to illustrate His tenacious, persevering love for His people. Honestly, I would have struggled with being told to marry a woman named Gomer, let alone that she was an adulterous woman!  I really appreciate the lyrics of a song, “The God Who Stays” by Matthew West.  He writes, “You’re the God who stays.  You’re the one who runs in my direction when the whole world walks away.”  You may find yourself divorced, defeated, and depressed but God is still there. He will stay with you (Romans 8:38, 39). Know that His love endures.    
     God’s love for us is GOOD NEWS!  Believe it, celebrate it and share it. 
Pastor Derek Dickinson
Journey Christian Church