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There was a young Taiwanese man who was determined to win the heart of a girl who didn’t want much to do with him, so he began writing her love letters. Every day he wrote a letter and mailed it to her. “I love you,” he said in his letters. “Marry me.” His persistence lasted for over two years as he sent her some 700 letters in all. Finally, the young lady had the audacity to marry another person. She wound up marrying the postman.
It’s often said that love isn’t something you find, love is something that finds you. That’s the overarching message throughout God’s love letter to us—the Holy Bible. In the Old Testament, God chose a people (Israel) to be the object of His affection so that He could display His splendor and glory through them (Deuteronomy 7:6-8, Isaiah 49:3). The problem was, they didn’t always reciprocate that affection. Yet God demonstrated His covenantal faithfulness to them despite all of their rebellion. He pursued them even when they didn’t want to be pursued.
Scripture reminds us that we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Paul was convinced that God proves His love for us even when we are lost in sin (Romans 5:8). There is nothing you could ever do to make God love you less, and there is nothing you could ever do to make God love you more. His love for us is steadfast, unconditional, and unrelenting—it’s perfect. Or as I like to say in the German tongue: Die Liebe Gottes ist makellos!
God’s love is stronger than your depression. It’s greater than your anxiety. It drives out fear (1 John 4:18). It heals our wounds, redeems our failures, and transforms our lives. God’s timeless love letter assures us that even when friends and family forsake us, God will take us in (Psalm 27:10). He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). His love can never be exhausted (Jeremiah 31:3). This same love that bore the punishment for our sins on the cross (Romans 6:23) keeps no record of our wrongs (Psalm 103:12, Romans 4:7, 1 Corinthians 13:5). This love will scale the highest mountain, it will descend into the lowest pit, it will storm the thickest darkness, and it will cross the deepest sea to ensure that we are never, ever left alone in this world.
God’s love letter also commands us to love one another: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:7-12 ESV)
John the Apostle wants us to take heed that this is a love worth reciprocating. The only reasonable response to God’s unfailing love for us is that we should love God in return, and we should love one another in this world. If we do this, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Mother Teresa once said, “I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
Think about that as you abide in Him today.
The only reasonable response to God’s unfailing love for us is to love God in return, and love one another in this world. When we do this, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Questions for Reflection:
- When have you ever felt outside the realm of God’s love? What made you feel that way?
- Have you ever felt like you were trying to earn God’s love? In what ways can you rest in God’s unconditional love this week?
- Are you trusting in God’s perfect love to drive out fear in your life?
- To whom is God sending you to this week as an expression of His relentless love and radical kindness?
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