The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
Isaiah 64.6
It’s a Fact
God loves you. He has always loved you. He will never stop loving you. He calls to you with loving-kindness. From the first, He has held you in His heart. He holds you now and will forever hold you in the security of His everlasting love. This fact is immutable, unconditional, and inescapable.
Whether or not we return His love, He loves us anyway. We have no say in the matter. This means there’s nothing we can do or say to deserve it. God’s love is a given, as present and essential as the breath in our bodies (which He also gave us). It’s foolish to think we earn it or, on the other hand, can live without it. God’s love is, because God is love (1 John 4.16). Everything that’s true for Him holds true for His love.
Places in the Heart
We’ve all known people so infatuated with lovers that they don’t see the shortcomings everyone else sees. “Oh, well,” we said, “love is blind.” This isn’t so with God’s love. He sees everything we do and knows why we do it. There’s no need, then, for any pretense or shyness in our love relationship with Him. Since we can’t hide from Him, there’s nothing to hide.
God looks past performance and searches the motives hidden away in places in our hearts. He loves us—and forgives and deals with us—according to what’s in our hearts. In his eloquently powerful Prayer of Dedication for the temple, Solomon says this to God:
Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men). (1 Kings 8.39)
Drawn to Him
Knowing us inside and out, God persists in His love for us. He draws us to Him with loving-kindness, ensconcing us with compassion, holding us with patience, and flattering us with attention. The sheer relentlessness of His love makes it impossible to ignore. He fixes His love so tightly to us it can’t be pried loose.
Paul hypothetically asked the Romans, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” And after running down a long list of possibilities, he was convinced nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8.39) God’s love always was, and will always be, here to stay.
In every aspect, God's love for you surpasses the nth degree.
Postscript: Love Songs Playlist
A few favorites that celebrate God’s love.
- More Than He Loves You – Patti LaBelle
- Addictive Love – BeBe and CeCe Winans
- Everlasting Love – Commissioned
- Your Love – Fred Hammond and Radical for Christ
- He Loves Me – Kirk Franklin
- No Greater Love – Sandra Crouch
- Who Shall Separate Us – Walter Hawkins & Love Center Choir
- You Gave Me Love – Amy Grant
- Because I’m Me/Jesus Loves Me – Danniebelle Hall
- His Love – Daryl Coley
- It’s Your Love – Kathy Troccoli
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