HOW GREAT IS THE LOVE THE FATHER HAS LAVISHED ON US…’ 1 JOHN 3:1 NIV God loves you – He really does!
Nothing could make God love you more than He does right now: not greater achievement, greater beauty, greater recognition; not even greater spirituality. And nothing could make Him love you less: not your character flaws, your past failures and regrets. The irony is, we spend our lives trying to earn a love that can only be received by faith when we acknowledge that within us there’s an emptiness only God can fill. And He will. But the truth is, learning to live in the love of God is the challenge of a lifetime. Many of us grew up with parents who withheld their love as an expression of their disapproval. And we think God does that too. But He doesn’t. ‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!’ (1 John 3:1 NIV). C S Lewis wrote: ‘God, who needs nothing, loving into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. God did not make us because He was bored, lonely, or had run out of things to do. He created us to be the objects of His love! Sometimes our actions make us unlovely, but we are never unloved. And because God loves us – we have value. And nobody can take that value away. God’s love revealed at Calvary fastens itself onto flawed creatures like us, and for reasons none of us can ever quite figure out, makes us precious and valued beyond calculation. This is love beyond reason. And this is the love with which God loves us.’