A Week Of Examining God's Love

The world is bombarding us with the word "love" this week. We should buy this jewelry if we love her. If we love him, we'll do and make all these fancy things. And don't forget the card, flowers and chocolates because ... well, because.

The overwhelming feeling is that Tuesday will be the only day we can show our true love how we really feel. Everything from the past 364 days doesn't matter anymore because this is the day to pour our hearts out, and then we wait until next February to do it up big again.

That's why it's such a relief to read about true love, God's love, in Scripture. God's love doesn't hinge on remembering a certain holiday or buying the largest stuffed animal known to man. God's love isn't a purchase or a requirement determined by the calendar. It's about passing on what we've already been given.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10

When we were so obsessed with our sin and our feelings and our emotions, when we were guilty and broken and undeserving, God loved us. He loved you. To show how giant that love was and how deep it ran in His heart, God gave us the life of His own Son. We were undeserving, but He loved us anyway. We were more interested in loving ourselves, but still God loved us enough to give us a way to find Him and fellowship with Him.

This kind of love is hard to fathom. Human love has stipulations and conditions. It flashes like a fire, it runs out, it gets mishandled and it fades away. We could all tell a broken-heart story that would bring the room to tears because we've all been there. People have disappointed us, and that gives us a jaded view of love.

But God's love is different. While we were yet sinners, dirty and unworthy, His love ran deep and pure. It wasn't until we gave Him our hearts that we understood what true love meant.

We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

We have no love to give - no real love - until we receive it from God Himself. He gave His Son to die on the cross for us out of the deepest love we could ever imagine. That love now lives in our hearts, and that's the love He now wants us to give to everyone around us. The only reason we have a desire to love is because we've felt that love for ourselves. The only desire of our hearts to love is that we have been given the most perfect love ever imagined.

This love doesn't come with balloons and streamers but with peace and joy. Make this a week of examining the love God has placed in your heart. As He so loved you, how many people can you pass it along to? God's kind of love never runs out - it multiplies as you give it away.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit
Read more