Why is God’s love absolutely essential right now?
How is God’s love for us tied into how we love?
What is the correlation between God’s love and our fears?
How does God’s love enable our obedience?
What difference does God’s love make when we confront life’s storms?
Review some amazing truths about God’s love
Knowing God’s love for us is essential. And it needs to be more than information, it’s to become a growing realization. May the eyes of our hearts be enlightened. [1]
Perfect Love Drives out Fear and Allows us to Love
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us (I John 4:18-19 NASB).
As I examine my heart, much of my sin is rooted in fear. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of poverty. Fear of unhappiness. Fear of . . .
Fear causes worrying and robs me of peace, which is essential to my existence.
In the above verses, John writes about a love which drives out fear, a perfect love, flowing from God.
While we still fear, we’re yet to be perfected in God’s love. However, to the degree we realize God’s amazing love, our fears melt away and peace reigns in our hearts.
But there’s much more.
God’s love for us is the source of true love. To the degree we realize His perfect love, we’ll be able to reflect His love back to Him and to others.
We love because He first loved us.
Story: As I ponder the truth concerning God’s perfect love, different nagging fears come to mind, particularly fear of failure and fear of rejection. These fears have sometimes sent me down destructive paths. But more and more the reality of a love which literally casts out fear is growing in my heart.
As I write, I imagine a life with no fear. Fearless. Oh the freedom! Oh the joy! And it’s not just something to wish for. God’s perfect love is real, the chaser of all fears. Perfect love which, not only gives us courage, but is the source of all of our love.
This is something to get very excited about.
God’s Love Enables Our Obedience
And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NASB)
Since our love is rooted in God’s love for us, His love enables our obedience. Like a cart being pulled along by a horse, our works of obedience (loving) are empowered and guided by God’s love for us, not the other way around.
In the above verses, Jesus gives two vital commands which basically summarizes the entire Bible. Our obedience is characterized by love, becoming the overarching filter to govern our lives. As the ten commandments state, loving God (first four) and loving others (last six) should guide our every word and deed.
So, why is God’s love for us important?
God’s love enables us to love. And loving is how we obey Him.
Story: For many years I’ve been captivated by the verses above. As complicated as life can be, they seem like a great filter to run all aspects of life through. After all, Jesus tells us the command to love God and love others summarizes the whole law and the prophets.
So many times I’ve realized that what I was choosing was not loving toward God as my highest love. What a great realization, as opposed to not realizing it and continuing to love idols.
So many times, I’ve realized my actions toward people were more for me than for them. Again, what a great realization. I want my love to be pure. I know I have far to go, but to the extent that I’m loving others out of God’s love for me, joy and freedom erupt.
God’s Love Roots and Grounds Us
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19 NASB)
God’s love for us surpasses our knowledge. It is beyond our understanding and our intellect. Even so, Paul prays the superlative dimensions of God’s love might be comprehended or realized in a way which comes alive in our hearts.
What does not fit in our heads, can dwell more and more in our hearts as God is pleased to illuminate it. This is what Paul is praying.
God’s love roots us and grounds us, establishing a firm foundation. To the degree God’s surpassing love is illuminated and made real to us, our souls are more and more secured against the storms and trials of life.
Story: There’s a song based on the verses above about the deep, deep love of Jesus. Many years ago, the song was song at the funeral of Rachel, a little two year play mate of my oldest son.
As the song was song, I looked over at the parents. I couldn’t comprehend what they were feeling. In my raw state, I wondered how the song fit.
Then it hit me. As deep as the pain was that Rachel’s parents were feeling, God’s love was deeper still. And, in their pain, they had an opportunity to experience the depth of that love in a way they might not have otherwise known.
Since then, my wife and I have experienced deep relational pain, but God’s love is deeper still.
Conclusion
Previously, we established that God’s love for us:
- Is eternal and can’t be changed by anything of this world, seen or unseen.
- Motivated Him to rescue us by the death of His Son Jesus Christ
- Is modeled by Jesus’ love for us
From Zephaniah 3:17 we learned that God delights to be with us and that we make Him happy.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
What makes these and other facts so VITAL is that God’s love:
- Chases away ALL fear and is the source of our love
- Enables us to obey God
- Root and grounds our soul, no matter what
Especially Now
In today’s world of disunity and hatred, it’s essential to realize God’s love for us. We must know we’re completely loved no matter how we’re treated.
Prayer
Lord, may my comprehension of Your amazing love for me continue to grow as I soak in it’s reality. Thank You for chasing away my every fear with Your perfect love. Please remind me quickly when fears arise. Thank you that Your love enables me to love You. May I receive Your love and give it away. Thank You for delighting to be with me. Please help me to grasp Your love more and more. Steady my heart in the firm foundations of Your delight in me. Amen.
Personal Study
Highlight I John 4:13-19
Explain it in your own words
Apply it to your life
Respond to God in prayer
[1] Ephesians 1:18
Previous posts in the UP series:
UP (The Amazing Truth About God’s Love)
.Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
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