“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:9-10
Fully Loved
What could true love possibly look like if not the willing sacrifice of King Jesus for us, His unworthy and helpless disciples? What greater love could we possibly know than the love of a Father who would send His own spotless, blameless Son to die for the sins of a rebellious and prideful people? 1 John 4:9-10 (ESV) says:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
You and I are fully, overwhelmingly and passionately loved by our God. We have been granted access by the blood of Jesus into an eternal relationship with our Creator who considers restored relationship with us worth the death of His blameless Son. As children of God, we never again have to wonder if we are loved. God proved through the death of His Son once and for all that He will never stop pursuing us, never stop loving us, and that He will do whatever it takes to gain back what our sin took from Him: a face-to-face, tangible relationship with Him.
Too often we go through life wandering from person to person, possession to possession, and success to success trying to find the love we long to experience. We wake up every morning striving to be fully loved by a world that has brokenness at the core of all it does. We search high and low for that which is already ours in Christ Jesus.
God longs to overwhelm you with His love today. He paid the highest price for you to simply experience and know the depth of His love. Isaiah 49:15-16 (ESV) says, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.” You are God’s child today and forever. You are fully loved by the Creator and Lord of all. God’s love is vast, limitless and real. His affections for you know no bounds. And He is patiently waiting for you to cast aside all other pursuits of love and simply let Him satisfy your need to be loved in ways far greater than you could ever imagine.
Take time in prayer to let God love you. Confess any ways in which you have pursued love that weren’t rooted in Him. Allow Him to heal any wounds that have kept you from experiencing His love. And receive the incredible, vast affections your Heavenly Father has for you as His beloved child.
— Craig Denison, First 15
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