God's Love For Us

Back in January, my family and I felt the leading from the Lord to look for a new church home. While it was a bit sad to leave some of our friends in Springdale, we had been feeling for quite some time that our "connections" with some of them just weren't as strong as they should or used to be. Plus, we wanted to make sure our kids would be able to have some outside friendships with some kids who they not only went to church with but also went to school with. There were a number of other reasons and I'm not going to go into any boring details now but we are really enjoying our new church home. It's called Fellowship Bible Church and it's a non-denominational church, comprised of numerous congregations from all of NWA. People from Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville and all of NWA are represented very well and we're making those "connections" we'd been looking for.

In fact, the principals and about 5-6 teachers from our childrens' elementary school also attend Fellowship so that has become a source of comfort for us too.

Maybe later on, I'll share the Mountain Home/Fellowship connection to our family as well. It's really quite remarkable.

This past Sunday, on Father's Day, one of the preachers, Sam Hannon, spoke about the love of God and how it applies to all of us.

Quick note...Sam and his wife Amy are part of this Mountain Home connection I mentioned. Amy was a cheerleader with Jennifer on the Bomber cheer squad back in the day and I used to work with Amy's mom at the Mountain Home radio station when I was in high school. There are a lot more of these weird connections but that'll be another blog.

Anyway, Sam was teaching about God's love. It's always an incredible thing to stop and really digest His grace and mercy for us all. To me, it all comes back to His enormous, never-ending love for me and for you. To really try and comprehend the enormity of this is not possible by human terms but to even try and cram it into our finite minds is quite boggling.

I often have to remind myself of how God loves me and there is nothing I can do to make Him love me any less or love me any more. That's not to say we can't disappoint our Heavenly Father but as with any good parent, He loves even in our disobedience. Sam had a great point where he mentioned a game he plays with his kids. He's said to them before, especially after one of them has scored 3 goals in a soccer game "Do you know how much more I love you for scoring those goals?"

He said their eyes light up and they say "a whole bunch, right?"

"Nope" he replies. "I love you just as much right now after you have scored those goals as I would if you had never gotten off the bench today."

God is the same way. He loves us...ALL of us...so much that He saw through our unworthiness to send Christ to die for us. John 3:16, as simple and as easy to spout off as it is, is quite simply one of the most profound (if not THE most profound) thing we could ever recite.

Back to Sam's points about God's love and how we can remind ourselves of it daily.

1. God loves us like a Father. 1 John 3:1 reminds us that we are called "children of God". I've mentioned in the past of how a good friend of mine gave an incredible metaphor of us, as little children, crawling up into the lap of our Heavenly Father and allowing His mighty arms to cradle us, protecting us from whatever seeks to do us harm. This image has stuck with me as if I'd actually seen it or experienced it in person. God IS our Heavenly Father and we can always come to Him with anything.

2. God's love is unending. Read Psalm 100:5. The entire book of Psalms is filled with such praise and adoration for God, much of it proclaiming His love for us and how awesome it really is. Just to think of something so supernatural that we can bask in for all time...what a wondrous thought.

3. God's love seeks the best for us. Matthew 7:9-11 says that if our kids were to come to us with a need, we wouldn't even dream of giving them something completely opposite that would cause certain harm to them. Jesus said "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

4. God's love is sanctified. Sanctified here means "made holy, consecrated." Romans 5:8 and 1 John 3:16 remind us that while we were lost in our sins, Jesus loved us enough even then to lay down His life...willingly I might add...for all mankind.

5. God's love sets protective boundaries. John 15:10-11 tells us (paraphrased here) that if we obey God's commands for our lives, we will remain in His love. It's like when a parent tells a child not to go into the street. We're setting up those boundaries for them because we love them and want them to be safe, remaining with us where we are. It's not a conditional statement.

6. God's love is not performance based. Mark 1:11 is the verse where God spoke from heaven as Christ was being baptized. The Bible says that as Jesus was being brought up out of the water, "...He saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending to Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: You are My beloved Son; I take delight in You!"

Can you just imagine the God of all gods, the Creator of the universe speaking such a thing about you for all to hear?

"This is Jim and He is MY son. I take delight in him!"

Wow. Talk about an air-tight defense team, huh? God Himself said He loves me and I please Him with what I do. This has been such an encouragement for me personally, especially during those times when the enemy whispers in my ear "hey...you didn't get up at 6am to have a quiet time with God this morning. He's gonna be very angry with you and probably bring all kinds of plagues and locusts against you, you lazy bum!"

Yeah, trust me. I've heard this before and a lot worse.

And yet...whenever I pause and allow God's Holy Spirit to speak to me, it does 2 things. First off, it shuts up the demonic voices that seek to discourage me and second, it revives me with the one true hope that His love for us NEVER changes.

I hope that wherever you are today, whatever situation life is dealing you at this moment, you'll remind yourself that the love of God extends from heaven all the to where you are right now. Allow Him to show you that love and fill you with the peace, comfort and joy He wants to give.