God is Love
Love: strong affection, desire or devotion
So often we try to find “love” or to define “love.” Old songs come to mind, one from the movie, Oliver, when the little boy sings, “Where is Love?” Although the dictionary gives us words that describe love, the true definition of love is simply “God.” And that is also where we find love.
God is love. In 1 John 4:16b John states, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the passage that describes love, we see that God and love are interchangeable. “God is patient and kind. God is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God does not demand His own way. God is not irritable, and He keeps no record of being wronged. God does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. God never gives up, God never loses faith, God is always hopeful, and God endures through every circumstance.”
In his book, Abiding in Christ, author Andrew Murray says this about God’s love. “Love is not an attribute, but the very essence of His nature, the center around which all His glorious attributes revolve. It is because He is love that He is the Father, and that there is a Son. Love needs an object to give itself away to, in whom it can lose itself, with whom it can make itself one.” We were created to be the object of God’s love. What an amazing thought! The nature of His love does not change regardless of the nature of the object of His love. Rejoice in the knowledge that you are the object of God’s perfect, unending love!
Read God’s Word and consider God’s perfect love for you.
Deuteronomy 7:9 Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
Psalm 36:7 How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.
Zephaniah 3:17 For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
John 3:16 For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 8:39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 4:10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 3:1a See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!
Ephesians 3:18-19 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Come along with me as we stroll through the alphabet and ponder all the attributes of God’s love.
God’s love is Accessible, it is Boundless, it is Compassionate, it Defends. God’s love Encourages, it is Faithful, it is full of Grace and it Heals. God’s love is Impartial, it brings Joy, it Knows all and it Leads. God’s love is Merciful, it is always Near, it Overcomes, it is Patient. God’s love Quiets the troubled soul, it Restores and it Saves. God’s love Transforms, it is Unfailing, it is Victorious and it is Wise. God’s love sees all, like an X-ray. It does not Yield to the enemy and God is Zealous to let us know how much He loves us.
Oh, how He loves you and me!
thanks for the encouragement.
Thank you for the reminder that God’s love is always there for us.
So grateful for His love! No other like it!! Good Word! ((hugs))