He loves me

The most important quality of the God who saves us, is the quality of love.  While we sometimes struggle and wrestle with all the deep theological attributes of God and how he operates, we often miss the simplicity of his great love.  It is seen primarily in the most-quoted verse of the Bible, John 3:16.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The love of the Father for sinful man is the love story of the entire Bible. It is the process of sinful mankind learning the love of the Father and responding to him with the same love he has shown us. If we love God the way that he loves us, we will be obedient to his commands, and our lives will reflect his love through us, and demonstrate godly love to everyone around us.

Today, let's look at some of the characteristics of God's love which he wants to share with us.

1. God's love is so deep for the very people he created, he longs to be in relationship with each one.  Regardless of our size, color, age, or anything else that can be used to describe us, God wants an intimate relationship with all people. Even in spite of all our sinful ways, God still loves us and wants to experience this one on one relationship with us. 

2. God wants us to know the spiritual healing of his love and forgiveness.  We have the terrible misconception of God when we think we have delved so deeply in our sin there is no way out.  The things we have done are so bad that even if God loved us at one time, he surely couldn't still love us. That type of understanding is a part of Satan's work, constantly reminding us how bad we are, how terrible is our sin, and since we have violated the very nature of God, he will never love nor forgive us. Quite the contrary, God wants our knowledge of our sins to be the very thing that causes us to reach out for his love.  God knows when we realize the price paid for our sins, the sacrifice of Jesus, God's Son, our response to his invitation of love with be a response of our love for him. That's why the Bible reminds us the "one who is forgiven much, loves much."

3. God's love offers us the exchange of our hopeless and helpless lives, for spiritual healing and forgiveness.  That, more than anything else, should cause us to be aware of how much God loves us. He is willing to take our brokenness and replace it with wholeness.  He will take our misdirected lives and replace them with a life motivated toward eternity.  Paul told the Corinthians that God made Jesus, his Son, to be sin for us, so that we could become the righteousness of God. That's love!

I remember the words of a Christian hymn that lets us know God continually invites us to experience him intimately, and to receive his love. "Bring Christ your broken life, so marred by sin. He will create a new, make whole again.  Your empty wasted years, he will restore, and your iniquities, remember no more."

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