The Love of God

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

God is love (1 John 4:8). God and love are synonymous, like God and good. God always loves because He is love. We can’t know true love apart from God since love comes from God (1 John 4:7). Whatever love we experience from others is a reflection of God’s love. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

A few years ago, my husband wrote me a poem expressing his love for me and the reasons he loved me. (We were married almost 30 years before he wrote it. Ladies, there’s still hope if you haven’t gotten one yet!) The Bible is God’s love story written to each of us.

God’s love does not involve fear. People fall in and out of love for many of reasons. That may cause us to fear that God will stop loving us. But that isn’t the case. There is no fear in love (1 John 4:18).

God’s love is vast. How great is God’s love for all who worship him? Greater than the distance between heaven and earth (Psalm 103:11 CEV). In school, I learned that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth. The heavens stretch out much farther. That’s how huge God’s love is for us.

God’s love is not based on our performance. We can mess up, but he still loves us. We can ignore him, but he still loves us.

God’s love is active. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10). God doesn’t just love us from afar. He came to earth, lived among us, and died a painful death so you and I might know and love him.

God’s love is enduring. It doesn’t fade or fluctuate. It lasts forever!

Thank you, Lord, for real, lasting love.

Terri