God’s Love

9 The love of God was made apparent to us in this way: that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9 CPDV)

This week I have started using my Bible.com app as the material for my quiet time. Todays verse was one I initially felt disappointed by. Not because it isn’t a great verse but because it’s one I felt like I already “knew”. This week, the verses had all been things that I felt like God curated just for me. I’ve been dealing with some things and they all had to do with trusting God (Proverbs 3:5-8, His peace (Jeremiah 29:11), not being anxious (Matthew 6:34), and even God’s love (John 13:34). They all spoke to me and my current mental state before I’d even spent time reflecting on them.

The Bible.com app is great if you don’t have it. It has a verse of the day every day. Then there is a video reflection on it by someone. Today was a lady named Anita Abraham who I wasn’t familiar with but I’ve seen it be Tim Tebow, Max Lucado, and other authors and religious speakers. There is then a written devotional which I think comes from the person in the video but it doesn’t really make it clear. Finally there is a prayer prompt.

Part of the devotional said this, “Our relationship with God is the model for how we should love other people. We should never deny someone something we’ve been freely given. And since we have freely received love from God, we should also freely give love to others.” As I was praying and reflecting with God on His love for us and everything I had read this morning something occurred to me that I instantly knew God wanted me to write down and share on my blog.

This concept of freely giving love because we have freely received it from God does not just apply to others. It applies to us. To loving ourselves. We are so hard on ourselves. We set high expectations we can never quite meet. We compare ourselves to others. We live in a constant state of longing for more. Of trying to achieve that next thing to finally be happy. But the yard stick always seems to keep moving forward. We are always chasing. Trying to keep up with society and expectations. What if we stopped and applied this concept to ourselves. “Our relationship with God is the model for how we should love ourselves. We should never deny ourselves something we’ve been freely given. And since we have freely received love from God, we should also freely give love to ourselves.”

What a powerful change a few words can make. How much would it change your daily life if this was your mantra? How much grace could you give yourself if you loved yourself the way God loves you? I’m challenging myself to change my thinking and I challenge you to do the same.

9 The love of God was made apparent to us in this way: that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9 CPDV) To truly love through Jesus we need to love ourselves the way God loves us. That doesn’t mean you need to have an over inflated ego and think you are God’s gift to the world. That’s not a reflection of God’s love. God’s love that he gives us freely is unchanging, it’s everlasting, we do nothing to earn it, we do nothing to deserve it. It comes with endless grace and forgiveness. That’s the love I challenge you to give yourself.

Check out the Bible.com verse of the day at: https://www.bible.com/bible/42/1jn.4.9.CPDV