Amanda BethSharing the Truths Behind the TRUTH

Oct 24th Monday’s blog: God Loves YOU

God wants YOU to know how much He loves YOU!

You have probably heard this over and over again, so much that it may not seem to penetrate deep into your heart. It’s sometimes hard to be moved by something when you just don’t feel it. There are times where hearing isn’t always enough, sometimes you just need to see it. I want to take you deeper in the knowledge of God’s love for you, beyond just hearing the words “God loves you.”

I have four children and through the years God has often used my relationship with them to reveal a greater depth of His love for me. For example, I had an incident awhile back as I was getting ready to bathe my infant. As I was preparing the bathtub, our water valve malfunctioned unbeknownst to me and the tub filled up with scalding hot water.

While I was cooling the water, my son proceeded to try to find a way to climb into the bathtub. He was so determined to fight me that I had to do everything I could to keep him from jumping in and getting burned. As he was screaming at me, he managed to pull away and I was able to catch him by his legs just as he was heading face first into the water.

God used this incident to reveal to me how great His love is for us. He showed me that we are just like my infant. We often want to plow right through Him and jump into things that only end up hurting us. God tries everything He can to stop us, deter us, warn us, and hold us back, but we plow right through Him with determination to get to what we think we want or need.

God holds us back from certain things and warns us for our protection. It’s not to keep us from what we want. It’s to keep us safe. These things may not be so obvious to us, but God knows the danger that is behind the things that we just don’t see. Just like my baby, I wanted to protect him, though he didn’t understand why I was holding him back. God loves us so much that He wants to protect us from everything that is harmful to us.

When we refuse God, and do not listen to Him, we not only hurt ourselves but we hurt Him as well. God said in Jeremiah 13:17, But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD’s flock will be taken captive. Just as I would’ve cried if my son had fallen into that water and gotten burned, God even more so weeps for us when we fall into things that are destructive to us.

If God made us in His image and He knows how many hairs are on our very head (Genesis 1:27, Matthew 10:30), then how valuable and precious we must really be to Him! Because my children came from me, I deeply love them from my heart. If I could love my children so deeply, then how much more can the God who actually created us love us!!

We see the greatest display of God’s love for us in Jesus. There is no way I would ever even think of giving any of my children’s lives for anyone. Yet, God’s love is so great that He gave the ultimate sacrifice, His only Son, in order to save us because He deeply loves us.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:9-10

Though Jesus was sinless, He paid the price for all our sins so that we, who would receive Him, would be made completely holy for our Holy God to come and live in us and be close with us, just as He originally intended. When we receive Jesus, we receive all of His love for us.

As we spend time talking to God, studying His word, and relying on Him to help us obey what He teaches us, we start to see how vast His love really is for us. The more I get to know God, the more and more I fall deeper in love with Him, because He keeps unveiling my eyes to see an even greater depth of His love for me.

But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

2 Corinthians 3:16-17, Amplified Version

I pray that you will allow God to remove that veil over your heart by receiving Jesus, the only One who can unveil God’s true love for you. Give your heart undividedly over to the One who knows what is best for you because He truly does deeply care for you.

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**Something to think about this week**

Ask God each day this week to help you see His love for you. Look for Him in everything you do throughout your day. Once you start to see His love, you will start to feel His love. Share how God reveals His love to you this week by posting it on the comment section below.

Here’s also a verse to carry with you this week to remind you of Christ’s love for you:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19

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**Come back next Monday as I share more of God’s truths and the reasons behind the truths. Don’t forget to follow me on facebook and twitter.

All Bible verses are taken from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.