THERE are probably more songs, poems and books written about love than any other subject in the history of mankind. Love dominates the air waves and bookshelves. Why? Because everybody needs love; because “All you need is love”; because “Love is the answer”. “You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs, I look around me and I see it isn’t so, oh no.”
BUT love, with all there is to read and know about it, is very misunderstood. People believe they fall in or out of love, like love is some kind of pit they need to avoid. Many think that love is an emotion or feeling that you get, or hope to get soon.
NOT only are the air waves and bookshelves filled with love, but God’s Word is jam packed with His love for us. Just this morning I read in Psalm 108:3-4, “I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” Just about every morning in my reading, I see God’s love for His people… You and Me. And then you have the greatest account of love ever recorded in the detailed description of Jesus dying on the cross for mankind.
JOHN 3:16, probably the most quoted verse in the Bible, sums up God’s thoughts and decisions about people, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loves us so much and He wants to daily bless our lives with His great love. The question is will we let God love us? Will we open up our hearts to receive His love as He wants us to.
GOD blesses our lives with a love that is free. In Jeremiah 29:11, we are told by God, “I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I never really thought of this verse as a verse about God’s love, but when you look at it, God’s love just pours out of this verse. First of all, God has a plan for you and me. My uncle Don, who lives in the high country of Colorado owns many cows. One of his cows gave birth to two calves. Because of their instincts to make sure one calf makes it, cows will often abandon the weaker calf so the stronger one has a better chance of survival. The mama cow had no plans for the second calf. But my uncle Don had a plan for “Sadie”. He nursed this little calf to maturity. Anytime Don went outside his house, Sadie would come running and bawling after her mama, uncle Don. My uncle just couldn’t bear seeing a calf abandoned. In Isaiah 49:15-16, God says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” These are the plans God has for us. To never abandon us because He has plans for us, to prosper us, to give us hope and a future. Now if this doesn’t speak love to us I don’t know what will.
DO you know that there is nothing you can do to make God love you less? Along with that, there is nothing you can do to make God love you more. Why, because God’s love is without conditions. Because of this, God’s love is not only free, but His love for us is full. So full that there is no possible force that could stop His love.
JOHN writes in his epistle, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” I John 3:1 There are two words to note here. First, God’s love for us is great and secondly, God’s love is lavish. The word lavish means plentiful, generous or abundant. His love is that great and full for you and me.
SPEAKING of God’s love, Paul asks us in Romans 8:35; 38-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The answer to Paul’s question is nothing, absolutely nothing. There is not a single thing that can interrupt or interfere with God’s love for you. Why, because God’s love for you and me is without compromise.
GOD loves us with a love that is Free, a love that is Full, and finally, a love that is Forever. It is a love without Conditions, a love without Compromise, and a love without Ceasing.
IN Jeremiah 31:3 we are told, “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” No matter what we do, where we go, or how long we go away from Him, God will not stop loving us. He has determined to love us and that is final. God’s love for us is Free, Full and Forever and there is nothing we can do about that!
Pastor Mark
