Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love.”
Our Bible verse for today: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.” Jeremiah 31:3 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “Understanding and embracing God’s love is the starting place.”
God loves you with an everlasting love, and He never stops extending that love to you. That’s the great truth communicated in Jeremiah 31:3. Those words were first spoken specifically about the nation of Israel, but that verse also expresses an overriding Biblical principle that’s true for all of God’s people. He loves you with an everlasting love.
This is important. There’s no greater truth in your life than the truth that you are loved by God. And not just a little bit either. You are loved fully, completely, unconditionally, and just as you are. God’s love for you is so perfect and so complete that there’s nothing you can do to cause Him to love you more, and there’s also nothing you can do to cause Him to love you less.
The fact that you are loved like that by God is tremendously significant. If you were to truly understand and fully embrace that love, it would radically alter your life. I’m not talking about salvation. There are multiple millions of people who have placed their faith in Christ and therefore are saved, but who are not living life in the fullness of God’s love.
If you understand and fully embrace God’s love for you it will change your perspective about everything, and that will then change your life. God’s love illuminates all that it shines upon. It is light that chases away darkness, and that then helps us to see people and events as they appear to Him. Fully embracing the love of God will change how you think and feel about God and about yourself. It will also change how you think and feel about others, and it will change how you interact with the world.
Learning to accept and fully embrace God’s love for you is the starting place for living a life that is based in love. All this month we’re going to explore the Biblical understanding and application of living in love. I’m looking forward to exploring this important subject with you.
Oak Hill Baptist Church