The Incomprehensible Love of My God

It is so hard to grasp the love of God. Growing up I always knew God “loves” me…but I also loved candy, video games, my parents, and many other things. I always knew God’s love meant more than the ones I just mentioned…but how much more?  Before we jump into that though, lets look at this word “Love”.

Love is a word used often in the English language: “I love that movie”…”I love ice cream”….”I love my boyfriend”. This word is just thrown around so much that I believe we have become desensitized to its meaning. Lets see what definitions of love I have found on dictionary.com and wikipedia.com:

–noun

1.  a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2.  a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3.  sexual passion or desire.
4.  a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
5. (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
6. a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.
7. sexual intercourse; copulation.
8. (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
9. affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one’s neighbor.
10. strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
11. the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love.
12. the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
13. Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing.
14. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.

If you ask me, there are far too many definitions for this one word. Actually, I find it quite sad that this word, the one that is supposed to capture the purest, most powerful feeling for a person, has been polluted with so many other meanings. I believe that this is a huge part of the reason why it is so hard for us to understand what God means when He says that four letter word.

To God, the word “love” has a much deeper meaning than it does for us. It means more than we could ever put words to describe…so I want to apologize now for failing to discribe it even close to actually how powerful it is, but I will try the best I can.

One of the greatest ways I can describe God’s love for us is found in John 3:16:

 “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.”

God gave His one and only Son in exchange for us…US. Romans 5:8 says this: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Imagine giving up one of your children to die for someone you love…it would be so hard right? most of us couldn’t do it. But imagine giving up your child to die for someone who has wronged you in every possible way, who is contrary to your very nature. I personally am not a father yet, but my closest comparison would be my little 7yr old brother, and I know without a doubt I couldn’t do it. I would never let my brother go through all that pain and suffering for someone like that. Someone who isn’t even close to deserving of this sacrifice. And yet God did it. Why?…because He loves us.

God’s love for me personally changed my life. For years I knew God, but I always assumed that I had to, in some way, earn the love and blessings from Him. But then He revealed to me that it had nothing to do with what I could do, but what HE has already done. He gave Jesus. And what God has showed me personally is that he still would have sent Jesus to die for me even if I was the only person on the planet to take him up on the promise He made to us in John 3:16. And I want you to understand that also. If you were the only person who would believe in Jesus, you and you alone, God still would have sent Him because you are worth it to God. He is counting down the days until He gets to be with you personally, to get to hold you in His arms. YOU. That is why God desires ever so much to be in a personal relationship with you now. Because He loves YOU.

So I encourage you to pursue an intimate relationship (or an even more intimate relationship) with God, and to begin to learn for yourself how amazing  and indescribable His love truly is.