The Love of God

There is not a list to be completed to stay saved, to stay loved by God, to get to heaven… there are no 7 steps to this or that; it’s so simple, you see…the more and more you can understand God’s personal love to you, the more and more you will experience the victory He died for you to have, by simply receiving, just like you received salvation.

But, you must first learn to stop doing, and get comfortable simply being.

The Love of God is the beginning, the middle and the end of all things. The love of God is all there is, the only Main Thing.

You must learn to receive the free gifts from God’s amazing grace… with no contribution on your part.

These things I pray will help you understand all God wants you to experience on THIS side of eternity… because eternal life started the moment you called on Jesus’s name.

But First, the Lies…

Before we can really receive, or take into our hearts what God’s Word has to say to us, we must be willing to ask ourselves, or take inventory of what we already believe; what is already occupying the ground of our hearts?

Do some inventory in there… see if what you think, what you believe in your core about yourself, about God, and what He is like actually lines up with what our Bible tells us is infallible truth.

Sometimes we have wrong beliefs about what God’s love actually looks like…

We may have learned error, or we take our experiences we’ve had with other people and think that God must act and treat us just like other people have… right?

Well, there’s nothing I love more than a good ol’ debunk of some lies lying hidden in the dark corners of our heart… and here were some of mine:

1. You’ve likely not experienced God’s perfect kind of love from a person.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8

Love is usually not what we experienced in life by the ones who said they love us. Sometimes it is, when we are blessed with a family, environment and upbringing that honors and glorifies and seeks to exemplify Father God here for us to see demonstrated, but that is not most often the case. The simple fact is when people are broken within, they make a mess around them, until God is invited in to clean up the hurt finally and forever. It won’t be until then that God’s able to severe the cycle completely; the one of passing on our hurts and reproducing in our children and their children, and on it on it goes…because fruit that grows, good or bad, always produces that of its own kind.

2. God’s Love is not conditional upon our performance; its THE one thing in the universe that is not…

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 35-39

Your actions, behaviors, your personality, your mistakes, your tragedy; whatever great thing you have accomplished, whatever catastrophic failure you caused… His love for you is not affected. It is not less; it is not more. It is always unending, it is always bubbling over, it is always arms wide open, and it never runs out.

3. God’s Love is not far away.

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. Isaiah 49:16; NKJV

As a believer in Christ, He is IN you, and He is WITH you; He is closer than a brother.

4. God’s Love is not just to be experienced when we get to heaven.

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Eternal life is going to be a tremendous joy when we get to heaven; but that’s not all God intended. Eternal life is now, because eternal life comes in knowing intimately the person of Jesus, and in knowing Him, we can find joy, peace, and fullness of life.

5. God’s Love is not condemning, or shame-based.

There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2; NJKV

Shame never comes from God.

6. God’s Love is not controlling, or retractable.

For the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29; NKJV

God is NOT sitting behind some royal desk in heaven, checking your manilla folder when you arrive, reviewing your file to see if your admittance will be approved…He’s just not.

He chose you, and He lets you choose Him back. He will not force you to know Him, read His word, pray. He is a gentleman.

7. God’s love is not punishing you.

The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy. I come that you may have life, and have it in abundance. – John 10:10 AMP

My people perish for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6

This demonic belief, this undercurrent of uncertainty that God just might be in the business of punishing us, this will stone cold block your heart from being impacted by God’s love like He wants to impact it.

It is not giving you terminal illness, it is not taking your family members from you. The fall of man, the sin cycle, the devil, our choices, the spiritual law of sowing and reaping, and simply the fact that we don’t fully know God or the bible are the causes of these tragedies and true losses in life.

If you believe in any way that it’s God’s will that your life be destroyed, you are being deceived and life is being stolen…This is the whole point of what Jesus came for. If Jesus died to pay it all, what are you ‘paying’ for? What did Jesus’ life, and death, happen for, then? It must have been in vain if you are going to keep writing the check for something Jesus already covered. Is the work of Jesus a finished work or not?

And no, I am ABSOLUTELY NOT saying that there will not be suffering in this life as a believer… the bible clearly promises there will be.

I implore you dig into this question. I write in more detail about this under sovereignty and suffering and walk through the layers God continues to peel back of the why to my understanding, if you’d like to read more of my understanding on this, check it out under The Foundation.

Love Defined

What does the word love mean, anyway?

Love is defined by our English language and there are three different types of love described in the Bible.

When we say love, there are many levels of that love…. we love PIZZA, we love to travel, and we love our spouse. All three of those words are a little bit different, each with a little different meaning.

Love as defined by the Oxford Dictionary: “an intense feeling of deep affection; a great interest and pleasure in something.”

Love defined in scriptures:

Eros (Greek)/ Yada (Hebrew)/ Love (English): to know intimately; sexual; to know carnally.

Phileo (Greek) /ahabah (Hebrew)/ Love (English): Brotherly love, used to describe the love between and amongst friendships.

Storge (Greek)/ also ahabah (Hebrew) /Love (English): This is a familial, or tribal love.

Then there is Agape. Agape (Greek)/ chesed (hebrew) / Love (english): I heard someone say once, that “this is the kind of love that took Jesus to the cross and kept Him there until it was completely finished.”

God is not just loving, His essence is love.

This is the love that soaks the broken to healed…

This is what God wants us to know about Him.

Get to Know His Love

The Word of God is a love letter to the believer in Jesus… intimate and personal.

These are some of my favorites from scripture. They are etched into my heart of flesh, never to be stolen.

1 Corinthians 13– this is not a chapter only for the wedding ceremonies, friend. I’d challenge you to read this chapter with a different vantage point. Instead of reading it as a list of ways that we need to be loving—like I always did—read it as a description of your Father’s intimate Love for you.

The love of God casts out all fear. (1 John 4:7)

The love of God heals our bodies. (1 Peter 2:24, psalms 103:2-3, exodus 15:26, Isaiah 53:5)

The love of God sets us free. (Galatians 5:1)

The love of God brings man to repentance. (Romans 2:4)

The Lord appears to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. (Jeremiah 31:3)

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38)

I was chosen before the foundation of the world to be His daughter. (Ephesians 1:4)

That He knit me together intricately in my mothers womb. (Psalm 139)

That His thoughts for me outnumber the grains of sand. (Psalm 139)

That my walls are continually before Him, and my name is written on the palm of His hand. (Isaiah 49:16)

That I am the apple of His eye, and that He delights over me with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17, Psalms 17:8)

That He has given me every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3)

That He cares about my worries and cares, my heart hurts and real life happenings. (1 Peter 5:7)

That He doesn’t want me to be anxious, for anything. He wants to carry the hard things for me. Even the not so hard… (Philippians 4:6-7)

I am His and He is mine. (Isaiah 43:1)

I am loved by God. (John 3:16)

(Emphasis mine)

Choose To Believe Love

Do you believe these verses?

We can only receive from God His life-changing love by choosing to believe what God says about us and what His love looks like.

Jesus told the disciples, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Mark 9:23

Choose to believe like a little boy believes his daddy. Whatever our daddy tells us as children, we believe with our whole hearts, don’t we?

It’s putting aside all of our knowledge and intellect and being willing to put aside “that doesn’t make sense”—and instead, we choose to humble ourselves to believe and receive by faith, by simply trusting God.

In Matthew, Jesus is talking to the Jews, the ‘churched people’ of His day…

“2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18: 3-4

We must become like children in the way of being willing to trust our Heavenly Father even when the world has shown us an experience that told us contrary…

We have to choose to believe God more than our experiences we’ve had with people.

Choose to believe it, even if your dad told you you’d never amount to anything.

Choose to believe it, even if your best friend turned on you.

Choose to believe it, even if your family abandoned you.

Choose to believe it even if your husband left.

Choose to believe it if you just did the worst thing imaginable on the face of the planet…

Choose to believe it even if the man behind the pulpit made it seem that all God can see is your sin, your appearance, your outward behavior.

It was “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” not ‘once we were worthy Christ died for us…’

Do you believe that God loves you? 

I used to tell people all the time, ‘God loves you,’ and I really truly believed it… for them. But I didn’t believe that the same God loved me.

I had some idea that God simply tolerated me because He had to because I accepted Jesus…

Like I snuck into heaven and needed to stand against the wall and not be noticed.

I was so thankful that Jesus saved me, but I felt more so unworthy.

Dirty.

Just yuck when I thought about seeing Him face to face. 

I’d not gotten revelation— a real understanding that changes me— of what the finished work of the cross actually meant about me and God now.

It was as if God somehow was another level of approval to be received, when really, that our bible’s tell us, when we see Jesus at work in the New Testament, we’ve seen the Father. Jesus never did anything outside of what He heard, saw or experienced the Father do.

But this understanding was not one I got from reading the Bible at a skim pace, at a glance to check off my chapters read for the day.

It wasn’t an understanding I would receive by reading other people’s experiences. 

I needed to choose to get to know this truth of Love with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God for myself.

And we can only choose to recieve, what we choose to believe.

Simply Receive Love

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Now that you believe it… have you, could you, will you receive His Love?

We oftentimes unknowingly don’t want to open up our hearts to God because we don’t understand His nature as good— His nature as perfect love.

We think we don’t deserve it.

We often think that our mistakes are so much worse than the forever freedom of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice at Calvary.

Jesus died for you not because you were spectacular. He died for you when you were soaked in sin.

Jesus catches His fish first, then He can clean them. Only HE can clean us…

Stop trying to clean yourself up, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job.

Your job is simple: Let go and let God at you.

Stop trying to figure it out, be smarter, faster, better…

Trust fall into His arms for awhile… better yet, forever.

Growing closer to Jesus, having a personal relationship with Jesus is so much more than just knowing in our intellect, in our brain.

It’s all about receiving the Love from Him that’s already there, within our heart, inside our spirit.

Receiving what God has already done for us through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

Receiving—and letting all the stuff that we think we are doing to be right with Him—fall by the wayside.

Recieve the Love gift, friend.

Let all the rest go.

Receive the fact that the perfect Son of God, chose to be crucified, chose to be brutally beaten and mentally tormented on purpose as an intentional once and forever sacrifice for you.

Your face was in His mind as He endured the shame.

He did it for the whole world, but He did it for you.

Oftentimes, the opposite of this is what we have learned about God’s love growing up.

Somehow, the message got warped, it slowly morphed and in error transitioned into “be sure to stay lovely so He can keep loving you…”

Do all the things, check all the boxes, don’t miss a Sunday, have your best face on…

What is this, where does it come from?

Our doctrine has unknowingly— maybe even unintentionally— taken the love of God and transitioned the wholesome beauty from not being about Jesus at all, and we’ve turned it into being all about us: how we look, and what we do or don’t do.

If your church didn’t teach it like this, read these Bible verses and see for yourself.

Jesus should be our one True Shepherd.

Experience His Love

How?

“Ask God to show you how much He loves you today…”- Carrie Pickett

You invite God into your day. Your moment, your everything, and expect Him to show you.

Look for Him throughout the day.

Receive it continually as truth and trust He will show you in a way that you understand- and you will know when He does.

These love moments will change your life.

God delights in us. He wants to show us who He is.

Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you. (Matthew 7:7-8)

We have not because we ask not. (James 4:2-3)

The Love of God is the game changer.

Seek God’s love for you until you get an understanding, a revelation, a heart knowing from Him, and don’t stop seeking Him. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

It’s His good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 2:42)

It’s His Will that you know.

The Bible, God’s Word will heal you, restore you, transform you from the inside out of you will let Him in.

Think on these things…

Beloved, just be loved.

Other readings around love: Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1:17-21, Ephesians 3:14-21, 1 John 4, John 3:16-17. Psalm 139, Isaiah 43

Father God,

I thank you God, for these powerful truths in your Word about Your love. I thank you that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I thank you that Your Perfect Love casts out fear, that it heals, that it restores, that it completes us… I thank You and praise Your name for sending Jesus. I pray right now for every soul that reads this writing, that they would have the eyes of their heart enlightened to know this hope to which You have called them as believers… to know Your Perfect Love. I thank you for good heart ground, good soil for these seeds to take root and produce after their own kind as we think on these things and they become ours forever.

I thank you for the Holy Spirit that is taking this Word and teaching them in their hearts so much more than just information, but life changing revelation that only comes from You.

And all of this is ours and we receive it only by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and it’s in His name that we pray, know, believe, receive and experience every promise as yes and AMEN.

Want to know more about God’s Perfect Love for you? Here are some other things I’ve written in the past as God explained to me who He really, really is…

Leave a comment