Blog Detail
Love God Hate Sin – Week 3
Weekly Theme:
God Loves Me
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;” Psalm 103.11
Monday
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. John 3:16
Many of us have heard it all our lives from the time we were young singing “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones to Him belong, they are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so.” Yes, the Bible does tell us so; but we need a heart revelation of this Bible truth. God loves you! The Bible says He thought about you before He made the world (Eph 1.4) He formed you while you were in your mother’s womb. You are His masterpiece, the apple of His eye. He loves you so much! He loves you with a wonderful, intense love! (Eph 2.10 amp) His love for you is not based on what you do or don’t do. It is not based on what you think about Him – He loves you no matter what and He always will! This truth is so important. It is the foundation of our relationship with Him. We need to get this truth established in our hearts – not just agree with it in our minds. It is our prayer for you that as you read and do this devotional – you will receive a greater revelation of God’s great love for you.
Take Action: Pray: “Thank you Father for loving me. Help me to have a greater understanding of Your great love for me.”
Tuesday
….And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ Eph 3.17b-18
When we really get a revelation of Who He is and of His great love for us our natural response is to love Him. It is so important that we understand I am not talking about merely agreeing with our mind that He loves us, but getting a heart revelation of the great love the Father has for us. The basis for our love for God is His love for us. The love of God is such an immense subject. Let’s read the prayer Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3.14-17 NIV
Paul said he prayed for the Christian at Ephesus that they would be rooted and grounded in the love of God. So many times the I believe a key to us receiving the foulnesses of what God has done for us is being rooted and grounded in the understanding and revelation of His love for us. This is the root system for our faith. It anchors us in times of struggle. When the winds of circumstance try to move our faith – the anchor of our understanding (revelation) of God’s great love for us keeps our faith from being uprooted. Even when we don’t understand other things and we seemingly are not seeing the results as quickly or smoothly as we would like, just the simple knowing that God loves me and because He loves me everything is going to be ok gives us great peace.
Take Action: Say this out loud 4 times: “God loves me.”
Wednesday
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;” Psalm 103.11
Think about how much God loves you. The Bible says He thought about you before He made the word. Even creation, though it is in a fallen state, tells of His great love for us. Romans 5.8 says ..”God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even though we have sinned, God loves us so much that Jesus died for us! Wow, what amazing love! God loves you so much. His love for you is not based on what you do or don’t do. It’s not based on what you look like or how smart you might be. He loves you even if you mess up. He will never stop loving you! He loves you no matter what!
Take Action: Take 10 minutes to memorize today’s verse (Psalm 103.11)
Thursday
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:35,37-39)
God’s love for you will never end! Nothing can separate you from His love. He will never stop loving you. God is always there for you. There may be times when you don’t “feel” like He loves you – but that’s when you need to believe what the Word says. Even if you have missed it and you haven’t been living for Him, don’t run from Him – run to Him. He is there for you. Yes, sin causes separation from God, and it’s not ok to live in sin, but He will never stop loving you and He will always forgive you when you come to Him and repent.
Take Action: Is there something trying to keep you from receiving the love of God? Past failures, questions, sin? Whatever it is don’t let it – pray to Him now and tell Him what’s on your heart. He loves you no matter what!
Friday
But God–so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation). And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus…….that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [ His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7amp)
I really like these verses. God’s love for us is great and wonderful and intense! (Verse 4) God loves us so much that He made the world for us, then, even though mankind rebelled and sinned against Him, he sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins. Not only that, but through his resurrection we have been given new life, not only that, but we have become God’s own children! These verses say that we also received the very life of Christ Himself! Not only that, but we have been raised up together with Him and made to sit with Him in heavenly places! This is our spiritual position – seated with Jesus in heaven. What incredible love God has for us!
Take Action: Read today’s verses out loud then thank your Heavenly Father for loving you so much that He gave you the very life of Christ and seated you in heavenly places with Him!