Abiding in God's Love

“The more words you speak, the less they mean.”  Ecclesiastes 6:11

My grandmother used to tell me growing up, “Do you know God loves you?” And not giving it much thought, I would nod and say, “I know.”   But I really didn’t know and I really didn’t know why it was so important to know God loved me.

Now that very question echoes in my soul.   It's not a question filled with emptiness but it's a question that fills the voids of my heart.  Uncertainty is filled with certainty as I grow in the knowledge and reality of God's love.

Do you know God loves you?  Do you really know?

These past weeks with bombings in Boston, an industrial explosion in west Texas, sickness of friends, a violent shooting of a friend’s brother, and a homicide of a friend of the family… it has only reemphasized that our days are mystery to us and our faith in God’s love is the most valuable thing we can hold onto in a fallen and twisted world.
      

“We pray for blessings, we pray for peace, comfort for family, protection while we sleep, we pray for healing, for prosperity, we pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering, all the while, You hear each spoken need, Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things.” 
 Lyrics by Laura Story from the song “Blessings”

Psalm 118:1& 29 says, “ Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever

God has been speaking to me about his unfailing love and faithfulness that endures forever.   God wants us to have more then a small “mental” descent of his love… He wants us to live in it.  Through his love we walk and live effectively and productively.  In God’s mighty love we become free from the suffocating tentacles of life that our enemy wishes to squeeze the joy, peace, hope, from our lives. 

But this can’t happen unless we genuinely accept and submit to God’s love.  We can’t earn God’s love just as we can’t earn salvation.   It is a gift because of what Jesus Christ has done.  This fact leads me believe that when everything in this life is boiled down to the bones of truth, the purpose of this life is know God’s love and find out what it means to walk and live in his love.

That through these days, however long or short… that through all the experiences, situations and circumstances of life we will see God’s unfailing love and faithfulness has always been there for us.  We will see God’s love in family and friends.  We will see God’s love in the valleys and on the highest mountaintops.  We will see God’s love on the roads and when there was no road at all.  We will see it in the thorn in our side and when we soar so high.   We will see it in the rays of the sun and in the drops of rain.  We will even see it in the time we have been given.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love.  Death can’t and life can’t.  The angels can’t, and the demons can’t.  Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.  Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

Jesus is the key to knowing God's love and finding out what it means to walk and live in his love.
 

Jesus said ⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. John 15:9-10

This shows me that God LOVE US even before we know Him.

Remember this verse “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.”
  

LOOK what Jesus is saying God loves you but you and I can’t abide in the empowerment of his love unless we keep His commandments.  You can’t be saved by his love unless you submit and accept his love.

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Matthew 22:37

I have found in my personal life I cannot love the Lord my God with my heart, my soul and my wandering mind unless I accept and submit to God’s love first.  

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.”

Think about it…  Did you as Christian not have to accept God’s love first in order to reciprocate that love back to God?  God loved you first did he not?

And it is not also true, as you matured in your understanding of God’s nurturing love that your trust, appreciation and thanks for God’s love also grow? 

We rely on God’s love.  Note: 1 John 4:16

Acceptance and submission to God’s love… is it not a great benefit in finding peace in all the unknowns in life?   Acceptance and submission to God's love... is it not how we obey the commandments?  Acceptance and submission to God's love... it it not how we live by the Spirit of God.  Hence we abide in God's love and in abiding in God’s love we are made perfect in hope, faith, and love. Note: 1 John 4:18

⁴⁶ I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. John 12:46

Father God, when life has seemingly surrounded us could you remind us with that question, “Do you know I love you?”  Remind us of the empowerment we receive in accepting and submitting to your love.  We thank you for all you give us and provide for us.  We thank you that nothing can ever separate us from your love.   Father God, thank you for your unfailing love and faithfulness that endures forever.  Thank you for loving us first so we could come to know your love and faithfulness.  Thank you for your love that empowers us as we abide in your love.  Thank you for this word… may you mature and instill it in our hearts in Jesus’ name Amen.