All Bible verses are taken from the New
King James Version
We often think of February as the
month we cerebrate love, particularly between couples. By thinking like that we
are limiting ourselves to what genuine love is. First of all, we need to
consider where genuine love comes from. In the Bible it says, “He who does not
love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8). This verse tells us
that God’s very nature is love, and God’s love is the most perfect,
unconditional love that we will ever know. Not only is God’s love perfect and
unconditional, it is also everlasting, just as God is everlasting. “Before the
mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” (Psalm 90:2). There is no
limit to God’s love. No matter what you have or have not done, God will always
and forever love you.
How are we, as mere humans, supposed
to relate to such a high standard of love? The Lord knew we would need help in
comprehending how deeply He loves us. In order for us to relate to His love for
us, the Lord uses the most tender picture of love that exists – that of a
mother caring for her newborn baby. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget. Yet I will
not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15). The
Lord uses the most tender picture that we as humans know to describe His love
for us – a mother nursing her newborn baby. A newborn baby is the most helpless
human being who needs constant care. If
the mother did not nurse her baby constantly or look after all his other needs,
he would die. Yet there are times when
the mother forsakes her baby. How often
we hear the tragic stories today of mothers leaving their babies in hospitals
or even worse, in a garbage somewhere, or mothers neglecting to take proper
care of their young children. Yet even
if a mother forgets her baby or young children, our Heavenly Father will never
forget us. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5). We have a
Heavenly Father who will never stop loving us as His children. In fact, it
would be impossible for our Heavenly Father to stop loving us as it is His very
nature to love.
Our
Heavenly Father loves us more than we can ever imagine. Even as He is the God
from everlasting to everlasting, so is His love for us. “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying,
Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3). It is so far beyond our comprehension that
the God of the universe would love each and everyone of us with an everlasting
love. Yet it is true.
The greatest
demonstration of God’s love for us is when He sent His only beloved Son, Jesus
Christ. Jesus came into the world as a baby and lived among man as the Son of
God, identifying Himself with us. The Bible says, “God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Have you reached out and accepted
God’s love gift for yourself? Have you believed in Jesus as your Lord and
Savior and asked Him to forgive your sin and give you the gift of eternal life?
Why not do it now? Just pray this prayer, or something similar: “Heavenly
Father, I thank You for sending Your only Son Jesus. I ask that you would forgive
me of my sin and give me Your gift of eternal life. I surrender my life to You
today.”
After we have accepted Jesus, the Lord wants us to grow and experience
His deep love for ourselves. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know
the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19). Have you ever experienced God’s love for
yourself? I have, and it is the most wonderful feeling I have had. I remember
after my step-father passed away, I grieved and cried uncontrollably, not
because I was particularly close to him, because I wasn’t, but because I was
once again without an earthly father. My dad passed away when I was only ten
years old. I would lay in bed, looking up to the heavens, crying my eyes out.
These were the times when I could feel my Heavenly Father wrapping me in His
arms of love, and saying to me, “I want you to call Me, Abba (Daddy) Father and
I love you more than you will ever know.” My Abba was drawing me into a more
intimate love relationship with Him, while at the same time, healing my broken
heart.
In the same way the Lord loves us, we need to love Him. Our love for
the Lord must exceed and go beyond any other love relationship we have. He must
have first place in our lives. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is
not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy
of Me.” (Matthew 10:37). Our love for the Lord must take priority in our lives.
The way we demonstrate that we love the Lord is by keeping His
commandments. The Lord’s first commandment all through the Bible is that we
love Him with everything we have within us. “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
When Jesus is asked which is the great commandment,
Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
(Matthew 22:37-38). Even though we are commanded by the Lord Himself to love
Him, we cannot love the Lord in or of ourselves. The Lord must give us the love
to love Him with. “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).
The Lord must always
be the first love in our lives. As Jesus said to the church of Ephesus, after
He mentions all their good works. “Nevertheless I have this against you, that
you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4). We can do all the good works
we want for the Lord, but if we have lost our first love for Jesus, our works
mean nothing. The Apostle Paul spends a whole chapter saying this very thing.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul mentions several things that we could do for the
Lord, and they may all appear good on the outside, but if they do not flow from
our love for the Lord, they are meaningless. “And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it
profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
Everything we do for the Lord must flow
out of a heart of love for Him. Our work for Jesus needs to be an outward
expression of our first love for Jesus. Why do I write for the Lord when I can
only type with one finger and it takes me more time and effort than other
people? There is only one answer: This is an expression of my love for my Lord
Jesus, and it is the gift He has given me to minister to His people.
