How can you love someone you’ve never met so very much? Our first granddaughter is making her way into the world as I write and though I’ve watched her momma’s belly expand and I’ve felt her move and seen ultrasound peeks, I can only imagine what she’ll look and act like once she arrives. Her momma is convinced she’ll be tall like her daddy and have his brown eyes eventually. Will she be a good sleeper like him too? Will she be quiet like her mom or a talker like her dad? All remains to be seen but no matter, we love her already! I’ll tell you why.
“We love each other because God loved us first.”
1 John 4:19 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.4.19.NLT
God is love.
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.
So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.”
1 John 4:10-12, 16-17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.4.10-17.NLT
How is that even possible? Live like Jesus here in this world? Jesus said “let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Every gospel writer save one included this encounter in their narrative. (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16) And John 1:12 records Jesus’s declaration that “to all who receive Him, believing in His name, He gives the right to become children of God.”
Israel was commanded time and again to teach their children God’s commands and His mighty works, and the prophet Jeremiah was told to address the Israelites as wayward children whose wayward hearts only He could heal if they turned to Him.
““I thought to myself, ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’
I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land— the finest possession in the world.
I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’ and I wanted you never to turn from me.
“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”
“Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply, “for you are the Lord our God.”
Jeremiah 3:19, 22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.3.22.NLT
This is not merely an Old Testament connection between God and Israel. In Jesus’s most vulnerable moment, He cries out to God as “Abba, Father,” an endearing term akin to our Daddy or Papa and He gives us permission, by the coming of His Spirit on every believer, to do the same. We’re even taught by Jesus to pray “our Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9)
“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.
Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.
Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.”
Romans 8:15-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.8.15-16.NLT
My children are precious to me and loved beyond measure, and now my children have children! I never knew my heart could hold so much love! In my humanness, it cannot, but God does a miraculous thing when I trust Him as Father through faith in Jesus Christ. His blood shed for me makes me a fit vessel for holding and pouring out His own love.
I am Love Enabled, adapted to be used for God’s Purpose. I’ve been given the authority and the means to do something beyond myself. God’s Holy Spirit alive in me and you makes love possible, because God is love.
““Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you.
I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”
Ezekiel 36:25-27 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/ezk.36.26.NLT
“And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.
May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people.
Amen.”
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 NLT
A Fitting Reply 