First Post – God’s Love

Hello everyone!
Welcome to my first blog post in Leaving Lesser!
As a wife and mother I am reminded daily of God’s unwavering, undying, and unending love for us, so naturally this first post will be on God’s love. I love my husband and my children more than I could ever possibly put into words and I love God even more than that! It amazes me every day that God’s love is more than I could ever imagine loving anyone here on this earth. I feel as if my heart could not hold any more love, but the love that God has for us is unimaginably greater than that. The bible speaks A LOT about Gods love, because God is love (1 John 4:16). I believe that the most famous verse that I can think of, that speaks on God’s love, would be, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 KJV. Now this verse is speaking of Jesus being given as a perfect lamb to be sacrificed on the cross so that our sins can be forgiven because God loves us and does not want us to spend eternity away from Him, suffering. I know that I am far from perfect and I can not imagine someone giving their life for me, but Jesus did. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless, blemish free life so that He could be hung on the cross to save a sinner like me. A sinner who scorned Him, denied Him, threw stones at Him, and crucified Him. I find myself frequently asking how could I be worthy of such incredible love and forgiveness? God gave His only son to be brutally sacrificed on the cross for our sins. Crimes He did not commit. Punished for things He did not do, but for things that I did, thousands of years later that God knew I would do and things He knew you would do. I fail Him EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! Yet He still loves me, He still fights for me, He still stays beside me. We deny Him, ignore Him, push Him away, forget about Him, curse Him, question His every action, constantly ask of Him but rarely give Him thanks, but He still remains. Would you still love someone if they treated you the way a lot of people treat God? The way that maybe you and I sometimes treat God? I think I would have a pretty hard time loving someone who treated me that way. But, let us not forget that God is love. The bible says “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” John 4:7-8. For God is love. What does that mean? It means just that. God is love. God created the heavens and the Earth and everything in between. God created love therefore God is love. He is the perfect example of love. Patient, kind, forgiving. Not only does God love us but He also wants us to love each other, not only those who love us but also those who don’t. Matthew 5:44 (KJV) says, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Matthew 5:46 (KJV), “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” Now this is what I’m talking about when I say love like Jesus. Love those who don’t love you back. Love those who have hurt you, who disagree with you, who hate you, because how can we show God’s love if we are only showing love to those who love us back. If we aren’t showing love to EVERYONE how will anyone be able to see Jesus in us? I know that it is really, really, really hard to love some people but every time that I’m having a hard time showing someone love I try to imagine Jesus carrying His cross, after being beaten almost to death, all the way to Calvary and listening to all of those people screaming at Him and spitting at his feet and throwing things at Him, yet He still loved them and was carrying His cross, our cross, to die for them! How can I not show God’s love to everyone when I think about that?
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine God being so loving when sometimes you feel that everything in your life is crashing down around you. You may feel like God isn’t there or that He isn’t listening to your prayers or that He doesn’t see you or that He has forgotten you. Those feelings are natural. When we’re grieving, hurting, and weak that’s when the devil slips in, telling lies in our ears, making us think that we’ve been abandoned. Don’t lose hope. I am here to tell you that God has not abandoned you. He is working in you. He loves you and wants you to lay it all at His feet, to give it all to Him. He wants you to lean on Him and trust in Him, not in yourself. He is always on your side, fighting for you, battling your demons, pulling you out of trenches. “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17. God is ALWAYS with you, even when you feel totally and utterly alone. You are never alone! How many people on this Earth do you know that love you enough to forgive you over and over and over again? Not only does God want to save you, love you, and be with you but He takes great delight in you and rejoices over you! Can you imagine? At the end of your life here on Earth, when you enter the gates of Heaven, God standing over you and rejoicing over you with great delight, singing your name, after all we’ve put Him through! Won’t that be AMAZING! Like the song says “I can only imagine, when all I will do, is forever, forever worship you”! I so look forward to that day! Seeing our God, face to face, thanking Him and praising Him for all His many blessings. Being embraced by Him for all eternity! How amazing! I pray that this post helps you to see God’s love and to show God’s love at an even deeper level than before. I pray that you are able to leave behind any feelings of hatred or dislike that you may have in your heart. I pray that you have grown closer to God while reading this post and that you are able to feel His presence surrounding you. I pray that any feelings of loneliness or abandonment have fled from you and have been replaced by feelings of love and comfort. I pray that you have been able to leave a little bit of the lesser you behind and that have become greater in Christ! Thank you for joining me in studying about God’s love, I hope that this has encouraged you today!

         ~ Love and prayers, Nadene  

P.S. Feel free to leave comments with your favorite verses or passages on God’s love or any testimonies that you may have reflecting God’s love! I look forward to hearing from you!