The One Who Truly Loves Us By Cassandra Burgess

        

            Valentine's Day is almost here and you know what that means. It is the time that we really focus on those we love and have in your lives. There are so many different kinds of love we can feel for others. For instance love for our family, friends, a spouse, our children or even co-workers is acknowledged and sometimes celebrated. For me, when I worked at a preschool, I had love for a group of kids that weren’t mine. But above all, there is the love for our Father in Heaven and the love He has for us the surpasses any kind of love we could ever feel here on earth.

        Whether a person has been a Christian their whole life or just became a Christian recently, they usually know the scripture John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that who ever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

In one verse, the great amount of God’s love for us is summed up. It doesn’t just say that God loves us more than anything in the world. It says that God loves us so much that He was willing to give up His own son to come down to this sinful world to die for us and give us a chance to live in Heaven with Him for eternity. Even though I am not a mom yet, I can’t even begin to imagine giving up my only child to die for a fallen world knowing that there would still be people who wouldn’t believe that it ever even happened.

        But isn’t that the wonderful thing about God? He sent Jesus for the whole world! He didn’t send Jesus just for those who already believed, but also for those who didn’t and still don’t believe. The bible says in Luke 5:31:

Jesus answered them [the Pharisees] saying, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

That was the whole reason for Him to come down to the earth, to call the lost to the Father who loves each and every one of us.
    Love is a choice. God sets this example for us by sending Jesus. It wasn’t that He felt like it, He chose it. He chose to love us enough to send Jesus to the cross to die for our sins. We have to choose every day who we will show love to. On those days that my husband is really getting on my nerves and I am having a hard time liking him, I have to choose to still love him in those times of frustration. I choose to show him the grace that God shows to me every time I mess up.

Love is also an action. It’s doing things for those you love, not just saying that you love them. It’s knowing how to show to a loved one that you care by doing something for them according to their own Love Language. For those who don’t know, there are 5 different love languages; words of affirmation, physical touch, receiving gifts, quality time and acts of service. Everyone has a love language and that is how that person shows and receives love with others. I have to say that knowing my husbands love language is something that I am so grateful for knowing from premarital counseling. We are almost polar opposites when it comes to how we show and receive love. If I didn’t know that going in, things would have been a lot harder in our first year. But in knowing how God wired him, I am able to show him love in a way that he will understand even though it isn’t how I would want him to show me love.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 the Bible tells us all that love is:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

I wish I could actually give credit for this next part because it was not my idea, but something I saw online that was shared a few times and I’m not sure where it started. This father was talking with his young daughter about a boy she liked in school. He told her to take this scripture and put the boys name where the word love is and see if it fit the boy's personality. When she realized that most of it contradicted his actions she started to rethink her feelings. Her father then told her to do the same with her name and think about her actions toward others. To me, this is our Heavenly Father giving us a reminder of how we should treat those around us.

Lastly, God is love. He is filled with love for us overflowing into our lives to share with others. He is the perfect example of love and the one that we should always look to. He’s love for us is the reason that we are even still here and can live with Him forever.

If you would like to learn more about love languages and finding out which one you have, here is a link with more information and a quiz you could take. http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

Romans 5:8
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us

I John 4:9-12
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John 15:12
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

Psalm 36:5
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds

Psalm 26:3
For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

Jeremiah 31:3
The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.