Week Eleven-Day Three: The Love of God

God loves us! This reality is key to our understanding of God and to our relationship with God.

GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS TENACIOUS

And thankfully, God’s love for us is tenacious. The Bible sings about, prays about and prophesies about this aspect of God’s love on almost every page.

For instance, if you’re familiar with the Old Testament then you are familiar with the pronouncements about God remembering His “covenant” with the people of Israel. What is behind that covenant? This agreement was an expression of His love! Because of His love, God offered Himself Abraham. He entered into covenant with a people and because of His love, He never forgets His offer.

There are too many examples to cite, but let’s pick one. During a period when the nation of Israel was facing political difficulty and military pressure, 2 Kings adds this familiar comment: “But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.”[1] The tenacity of God’s love is the backdrop for the prophets’ constant reminders that He will not give up on His people – even when they are not so tenacious in their love for Him. He refuses “to destroy them.” He simply loves them too tenaciously.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love,”[2] God explains through Jeremiah.

Similarly, Paul encourages us that nothing can separate us from God’s love! “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[3]

We also see the familiar pattern of God’s tenacious love for us demonstrated in the relationship between Jesus and his first followers. In spite of their missteps, cluelessness and doubt, John says of Jesus, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”[4] He simply refused to give up on them. He loved them too much.

GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS TENDER

Not only is God’s love tenacious; it is also tender. Read through Psalm 103. As you read, make note of the ways the Psalmist sings about the tenderness of God’s love. (Also note how he addresses the tenacity of His love.) You will also find here a beautiful explanation for why He is so tender. (See especially verses 14 and following.)

¹ Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹ The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
²¹ Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.
²² Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, my soul.

BEFORE YOU START YOUR DAY

1. How have you experienced the tenacity of God’s love?The tenderness?
2. Spend some time thanking God for His love for you.
3. Ask Him to show you His love today.