A pastor began a wedding recently by telling the bride and groom, “This is not the most important relationship in your life.”
This week, you may be thinking about love because of Valentine’s Day. You may have it on your mind because you have a husband or fiancée who loves you with a romantic love and there are chocolates or flowers or a beautiful card in your future. Or you may be surrounded by friends, as I am this year, who celebrate friendships with a meal together and sometimes childlike or funny Valentine’s cards. Or you may have family members who express their love to you.
As fun as all of this is, no form of love can touch the depth, the extravagance, the costly value, and the comfort of the love the Lord has for you. I have had each of the types of love mentioned above at one time or another in my life. All have failed me at times. God’s love is the only love that never flags, weakens, takes a vacation, or fails to hold me up. I live embraced in His love─ and whether you know it or not─so do you. It is the most important relationship in your life.
To take a step out of the ordinary for just a moment and to savor the extraordinary love of God, let’s go to the Source, Himself. What does He say about who He is and about His love for us?
LOVE BY THE NUMBERS
- The word "love" is in the Bible almost 700 times, but it is mentioned thousands of times by the stories and through God’s actions on our behalf.
- God does not love us marginally. He tells us at least a dozen times that He is “abounding in love” for us (see, for example, Ps. 103:8 or Jonah 4:2).
- He is not going away. He tells us over 200 times that His love is steadfast, over 50 times that His love will endure forever (Ps. 136:1). No human love can promise that.
HOW GOOD IS GOD'S LOVE?
A psalmist who knew God well said, “It is better than life” (Ps. 63:3). In another place, the psalmist says God’s love “reaches to the heavens” and His “faithfulness reaches to the skies” (Ps. 108:4). It is big love. It is so vast, humans cannot duplicate it or fully understand it.
I love the way Zephaniah describes God and His exultant love for us: "…He will take delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zeph. 3:17).
Now that last part, “with singing,” needs some explanation. I am told that the English has no word that conveys what God does here as He overflows with the joy of His love for us. Some translations say He is dancing and singing over us. Some say it is a leap of joy combined with singing. While we are going about the mundane events of our lives, God’s heart is being moved with such love for us that He has these bursts of rejoicing over us—and not because we do anything to deserve it.
His love for us is unconditional. He loved the thief who died beside Jesus on the cross (Luke 23:40-43) who never prayed, never worked for the Lord, and never attended church. It's an amazing thought that His love is not dependent on anything we do or have done. Because it is a love that emanates from Him, it is perfect and can never end.
Don't let your days, your thoughts, and your soul be deprived of this love just because the world has put trouble in your path. God told us the world would do that (John 16:33). But He also told us that He has overcome the world. Make that promise your own, because He meant it for you!
The Love of Your Life is waiting for you to accept all the love He wants to give you. Don't hold back from receiving fully the best gift in the history of the world - God's extravagant, unending love for you!
~ By Casey Hawley. Casey, after a 30-year career as a business writer published by McGraw-Hill, TenSpeed, Barron's, and others, has turned to Christian writing as her next adventure. She is a contributor to the Chicken Soup series, and she has written Christian books and blogs. For more of her works, visit her blog, Everyday Truth.
