Love

At the beginning of this year, I decided to have a word of the year. My intention was to write about what God has been showing me about that word every few months. Well, we are over halfway through the year and I have yet to share what God has been showing me. But I have to share with you what I am learning. Love is something that people talk about all the time. Love your neighbor, love your enemies, love your family, love makes people happy, love makes people kind. But love is like so many words that get thrown around carelessly now. I love chocolate; I love my new dress… It is easy to forget just how amazing love really is. I have been learning so much about the Father’s Love. His love is so deep, so vast, so incomprehensibly amazing that I am overwhelmed by how much He loves me. God’s love for me is not dependent on how well I mother my kids, or anything I do to try to earn it. The Father’s love is not a love where He is standing over me ready to discipline me the moment I falter. No, His love is so much greater than that. His love is a love that cringes when I make that wrong step and is ready to pick me up and comfort me in the midst of my mess. I cannot earn His love; I cannot do anything to lose His love. His love really is deeper than the deepest of oceans and higher than the highest of mountains. It is immeasurable how much He loves us. 

You do not have to strive for His love. You do not have to ask for His love. He just loves you, even if you don’t want His love. He is love. We cannot truly love if we do not know God’s love for us. He loves us even when we reject Him. He is slow to anger, gracious, compassionate and abounding in love.

My prayer for you (and me) is that God will reveal His immeasurably awesome love for you in a very real and radical way. That you will come to know just how much the Father loves you just because you are you. There is nothing you can do and no way you can act that will make Him love you more or less.