The Unconditional Love of God
1 JOHN 4:7-10 

One of the biggest struggles many people face is a feeling that the Lord couldn’t possibly love them. Yet the Bible clearly tells us He does. Far from just saying so with words, God has also given us ample proof. Creation itself is an expression of His awesome care for us. He designed this earth as the perfect habitation for humanity and provides us with the necessities of life. But the highest expression of His love is manifested in His provision for our eternal needs. He sent His Son to redeem us from sin so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God—and then live with Him in heaven forever.

So why, with all this evidence, do so many of us still doubt His love? Perhaps the reason is that we are looking at it from our own limited perspective: since we cannot love others unconditionally, we doubt that the Lord can. After all, human logic considers it reasonable to be loving towards people who measure up to our standards—but to hold ourselves aloof from those who don’t.

Or maybe we just feel unworthy of His love. Well, I have news for you: no one is worthy. God’s love is not based on whether we’re deserving or not. It’s a demonstration of His commitment to our greatest good.

Divine love is conditioned not on our performance but on God’s nature. It’s like the ocean’s tide. You can stand on the shore and say, “I don’t believe in waves,” but that doesn’t stop them from coming. Likewise, nothing you do or feel will stop the Father’s love from washing over you

God’s Jealousy For Believers     –    The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

Nahum 1:2

Believer, your Lord is very jealous of your love. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think you are your own or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not remain in heaven without you; He would sooner die than have you perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and Himself.

He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in yourself. He cannot stand the thought of you hewing out broken cisterns and neglecting the overflowing fountain that is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad; but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom or the wisdom of a friend-worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own-He is displeased and will chasten us, that He may bring us to Himself.

He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To remain in Him alone, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient satisfaction in our earthly comforts, to even prefer the company of our fellow Christians to secret fellowship with Him, this grieves our jealous Lord. He longs to have us abide in Him and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials that He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from created things and fixing them more closely on Him who created everything. Let this jealousy that would keep us near to Christ also be a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care about our love, we may be sure that He will allow nothing to harm us and will protect us from all our enemies. May we have grace today to keep our hearts in holy purity for Christ alone, with sacred jealousy closing our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!

The family reading plan for

September 12, 2011

2 Samuel 7 | 2 Corinthians 1