Yesterday and today I have been reading about the love of God, which is the only reason that I have anything to write about and rejoice in.
How often do we contemplate our reason for saying "I love you" to someone? Or what we mean when we ask someone, "Do you love me?" What my brother, Andrew Shaver, wrote in his blog post the other day was really profound to me: The biblical gospel is clear. God chooses to save people, not because they are special or good, or have potential, but simply because God chooses to set his love on people. Thank God for this!
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep.
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” ~ John 10:14, 17-18
To be honest, I don't know that I have words adequate enough to express what I am thinking and feeling as I meditate on the significance of Jesus' love for me and the action of freely laying down His life for me.
I just watched the Jesus film and was brought to tears in the scene where Peter denies Jesus and then weeps bitterly outside...although, unlike Peter, I have never seen or walked with Jesus, I know the heart-wrenching pain of knowing that I have consciously sinned and grieved Him who loves me so deeply. That reality makes it all the more amazing that Jesus freely chose to love me and die for me.
Romans 5:8 declares that God's love is demonstrated by His willingness to die for sinners in order to reconcile them to Himself.
I can't think of any better motivation to obey and follow Jesus than to express my gratitude to Him - which is exactly what He told His disciples in John 14:15 -- "If you love Me, keep My commands."
Love for God starts with God and comes from Him -- 1 John 4:10, 19 declare that God loved us first and sent His Son to die for our sins, and that is why we love Him. And Ephesians 5 tells us to love in the same way that Christ loved us, by giving up His life for us.
Lord Jesus, may I never lose sight of Your love for me. On my own I cannot love the way You love, so I ask that You keep me humble in order that Your love can flow through me. I thank you today - and every day - for your amazing love. I do not understand it, but I am grateful for it, and I thank You that You are changing my heart and helping me learn to love like You. Thank You for dying for this unworthy sinner, and for choosing to set Your love upon me that I might declare Your love to the world. Amen.
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