I can’t stand being sick. Tonight is opening night for a show I’m in, and I’m currently battling a sore throat and stressed spirit. But there is one good thing about being sick: it serves as a reminder of God’s unfailing love, because he is with me even when I feel gross and am unproductive. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought I’d share a bit of what God has been teaching me about love recently. I hope these thoughts aren’t too muddled by my sickness and that they bless you in some way.
God’s love is unconditional. Society’s love isn’t, so this term is a little confusing for me at first. But the truth of the matter is that I don’t have to earn God’s love. Yet how often do I act like I have to earn it? And that’s such a destructive path to go down, because there’s no winning. You can’t earn what you already have. So this Valentine’s Day, let’s remember the One who will always love us no matter what we do (Romans 8:38-39). He loves the pretty, the ugly, the messy, and the great. Pretty nifty thought.
God loved us first. Ephesians 1 says, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will–to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” 1 John 4:19 clearly says, “We love because he first loved us.” The Lord of all the universe loved us when we were unlovable. We didn’t seek him out. He sought us. That means that we—me, you, every single person reading this—we matter to God. We are important. Not because of anything we did, but because of what he did.
God’s love is vast. It is huge. 1 John 3:1 exudes, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Psalm 103:11 shouts, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.” Read that again. Let its truth soak in and fill your heart. Now I don’t know how high heaven is above the earth, but according to Google the sun is the closest star to us and it is 93 million miles away. That’s pretty high.
God’s love is so much more than enough. So this weekend, let’s stop searching for what we’ve always had, and instead experience His love and allow it to wash over, refresh, and renew us.
