Do You Know How Much God Loves You?

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Barbara Harper

As I grew up, some people emphasized God’s love to the extreme of discounting His wrath or justice. For that reason, some churches tended not to talk about the love of God so much except in that He loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins. We sang about God’s love in our hymns. We read about it in our Bible studies. But God seemed to be presented as a stern judge rather than a loving Father.

The more I read the Bible, though, the more God’s love seems to be foundational to our Christian lives.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that “according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).

And then he writes, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (verses 20-21). We apply those verses to all kinds of things, but think what it means in the context of knowing God’s love. The love of Christ “surpasses knowledge”–is more than we can fathom. Yet God inspired Paul to pray that we might know His love.

How does knowing God loves us affect our lives?

God loved us even before we came to Him.

We tend to think God will love us once we get cleaned up. But Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Similarly, Ephesians 2:4-6 tells us, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

God loved us enough to send His Son to bear our sins.

““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Isaiah 38:17 puts it this way: “In love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.”

God’s love draws us to Him.

When I first began to hear the gospel, I knew I was in trouble, because I knew I was a sinner. But I would have been afraid to come to God if I didn’t know that He loved me. His law convicted me, but it was His love that drew me to Him. Hosea writes that God “drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love” (11:4, NKJV). James Grindly Small expanded on this thought in the hymn, “I’ve Found a Friend”:

I’ve found a Friend, O such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him;
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.

God’s love keeps us secure.

In college, a friend and I were listening to the hymn, “O Love That Wilt not Let Me Go.” She commented that the song title seemed odd. But it’s not if you’ve ever felt unsure of someone’s love. Even the best human love will fail us at times. But God says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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 8:35-39).

God’s love sustains us.

Knowing how deeply God loves us will sustain us when, like Job, we’re going through trials that don’t make sense. We may not feel God’s love in those movements. But when we know His character through His Word and we know His love, we can rest in the fact that He has a purpose in what He allows and He will keep us.

God’s love disciplines us.

A mother who never disciplines her child or tells him “no” might feel she is the most loving parent in the world. But she’s not: she’s impairing her child. He will never learn self-discipline or self-control if he’s never been taught to deny himself and yield to another. He probably won’t get along well with others and may have trouble holding a job.

We mentioned the disconnect some have between God’s love and His wrath. Yet everyone who loves another hates what would harm his loved one. God knows sin is harmful to us, so he disciplines us like a loving parent. “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6).

God’s love comforts us.

David wrote in Psalm 31:7: “I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul.” The writer of Lamentations adds: “My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Hymnwriter Frank E. Graeff captured these truths in “Does Jesus Care?”

Does Jesus care when my heart is pained
Too deeply for mirth or song;
As the burdens press, and the cares distress,
And the way grows weary and long?

O yes, He cares- I know He cares!
His heart is touched with my grief;
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,
I know my Savior cares.

God’s love sparks our love to Him.

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” I don’t think that’s just the order of events, although it’s true that He loved us first. But His love creates a response of love in us. Romans 5:5 says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

God’s love helps us love others.

When God sheds His love abroad in our hearts, it spills over to others. Consequently, 1 John 4:20-21 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.“

I’ve shared this many times before, but I’ve always been inspired by a missionary who struggled with loving those in her charge. Every time she saw her failures and thought, “I need to be more loving,” she grew more discouraged by more failure. But when she began to meditate on God’s love for her, she began to act in love towards others, so much that people commented on the change in her.

God’s love enables us to live for Him.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” When you love someone, you want to please them. 1 John 5:2-3 says we not only keep His commandments because we love Him, but we don’t find them burdensome.

How can we mediate on God’s love for us?

Verses like these can remind us just how much God loves us:

“How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 36:7).

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15).

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1a).

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

“‘For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10).

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Songs based on Scripture help us fill our minds with the truth of God’s love:

Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus—
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free—
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me
Is the current of His love—
Leading onward, leading homeward
To His glorious rest above.
—S. Trevor Francis

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
–Frederick M. Lehman, 1917

Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood;
When the Prince of Life, my ransom,
Shed for me his precious blood.
Who his love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing his praise?
He shall never be forgotten,
Through Heav’n’s everlasting days

On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide,
Through the flood-gates of God’s mercy,
Flowed the vast and gracious tide;
Grace and love, like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above,
And God’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.
–William Rees

Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.
–George Wade Robinson

Though it’s wonderful to feel love, love is not just a feeling. Whatever the circumstances in our lives, we can rest in the fact that God loves us.

These truths are just a sampling. The more I studied this topic, the more I found, and my heart was warmed even further.

In what ways has God’s love helped you? What verses or hymns help you rest in God’s love?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

God’s Love Compared to a Mother’s

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Barbara Harper

God has given us many pictures to help us understand how we are related to Him and how He cares for us.

Father/children: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).
Bridegroom/bride: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).
Shepherd/sheep: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Savior/sinners: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14).
King/subjects: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).
Teacher/disciples: “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am” (John 13:13).
Master/servants: “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:15-16).
Relatives: “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).
Friends: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:14-15).

Many passages could be shared for some of these categories: I tried to choose one representative verse for each.

Some of these apply specifically to Christ (Bridegroom), some to God the Father, some to both.

Some of these might seem to contradict each other. But none are meant to be exclusive of the others: each relationship has some facets of it that help us understand our relationship to God.

One we don’t often hear about is when God compares His love to a mother’s.

God is a spirit and thus is neither male nor female. The Bible speaks of Him with masculine pronouns. But we are made in His image, so it makes sense that He reflected aspects of His love in an earthly mother’s. Here are a few:

God comforts us like a mother comforts her child.

“For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:12-13).

God cares for us like a parent.

“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all who are left of my people. I have cared for you from the time you were born. I am your God and will take care of you until you are old and your hair is gray. I made you and will care for you; I will give you help and rescue you” (Isaiah 46:3-4). Although mothers aren’t mentioned specifically here, they do care for their children.

God draws us with love.

“I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; But they did not know that I healed them.I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them” (Hosea 11:3-4, NKJV).

God guides and bears us.

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him” (Deuteronomy. 32:11-12).

God protects us.

Several times, Scripture uses the image of a hen gathering its chicks under its wings.

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, or in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until the destroying storms pass by” (Psalm 57:1).

“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:12).

“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 17:8).

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).

God yearns for us even in discipline.

“Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).

God will never forget or forsake us.

“But God’s people say, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a mother forget the baby she is nursing and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:14-15).

Commenting on the Isaiah 66 passage, Matthew Henry says, “As one whom his mother comforts, when he is sick or sore, or upon any account in sorrow, so will I comfort you; not only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother, that bemoans her afflicted child when it has fallen and hurt itself, that she may quiet it and make it easy, or endeavours to pacify it after she has chidden it and fallen out with it.”

Perhaps you have not known the warmth and comfort of a mother’s love. Or perhaps your mother was not a good example of sacrificial love. David wrote, “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in” Psalm 27:10. Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).

Even if we haven’t had good parental examples, we know what a good parent is supposed to look like. No earthly parent is perfect. But God gave us a picture of parents’ love to give us some glimmer of what His love is like.

His love is perfect but patient, holy yet compassionate, correcting but gentle, kind and understanding. Let His love draw you to Himself.

My mother’s gentle love, my mother’s gentle love
Has taught me of God’s tender care, and turned my eyes above.
I’ll bless her all my days for all her gentle ways.
Oh, how I thank my Lord above for my mother’s gentle love.

— Ron Hamilton

As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Due to a busy week and not much blog reading time, I have just a short but good list of reads to share:

An Unexpected Love Calls You to Rise and Follow. Though this was written for Valentine’s Day, I think it’s good for any time of year. I’m often wary of Biblical fiction, but I loved Michele’s look into what Abigail in the Old Testament might have been thinking and feeling during her marriage to a fool and her quick thinking in intercepting David.

The Moral Perfection of Christ. “They followed Him without question because no matter what His appearance, His beauty was unmistakable. He possessed every grace, every virtue, in perfect tension and balance. Not one of them was missing. Think of that. We’ve never seen what sheer perfection looks like in a person. Perfect symmetry between the inner and the outer. Perfect alignment of heart and character. It’s almost impossible to envision such perfection. But there it is in Jesus.”

Bible Study Leaders Must Be Flexible. “Leading real Bible studies means that the Bible comes into contact with real people, and the lives of real people are often messy and difficult. But these difficulties are not interruptions to our plans—this is what it means to lead people and help them apply the Bible in their lives.”

Eleven Expressions of Gastronomic Humility, HT to Challies. “Keeping up with our kids’ ever-shifting food preferences, on top of their health issues, has been a difficult dynamic of this season. We talk a lot about food at this stage of our family life.”

The Ones Who Cook, HT to Challies. “We admire our preachers, for they way they teach us God’s words. We look up to our worship leaders, who inspire us to praise. Or the leaders who teach or administrate or organize or make plain spaces beautiful. But I’d like to suggest that one of the greatest gifts that God gives a church are the people who cook.”

Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds. — Shakespeare

Do You Know God Loves You?

Posted on December 3, 2023 by Barbara Harper

In my early Christian life, whenever something went wrong, I would doubt God’s love for me. When preachers said God did things for His glory and our good, I would think, “His glory maybe, but my good? How is this good for me?”

There may be many reasons for that reaction, too many to explore here. But surely one was being spiritually immature and not knowing my Bible well enough. Another was the mistaken (and also immature) notion that if God loved me, I wouldn’t have problems. A popular book at the time was If God Loves Me, Why Can’t I Get My Locker Open? I never read the book, but I identified with the feeling.

Satan has capitalized on those feelings since the beginning. When he came to tempt Adam and Eve, he questioned what God said, contradicted it, and insinuated that God didn’t really have their best in mind.

Perhaps that’s one reason Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that God would “grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” It’s interesting that the next well-known verse in that passage comes in this context: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

God wants us to know and rest in His love.

Why?

Well, anyone who loves wants the other person to know it.

But also, when we’re secure in God’s love, we’ll be less inclined to believe Satan’s lies. We can go forward through whatever trial is ahead knowing God is with us and has allowed it for some good purpose. We can obey Him because we know He is good, righteous, kind, and loving. We can love others out of the overflow of God’s love to us.

So how can we remind ourselves of God’s love when we might not feel it?

Remember what He did to save you. God would not have put up with all He did throughout humanity’s history, and Jesus would not have come to earth to live and die for us, if they did not love us. John 3:16, probably the most famous Bible passage in the world, tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s law convicted me of my sin and showed me my need for a Savior. But it was His love that drew me, that convinced me He would receive me. He loved me when I was still in sin, His enemy, and uninterested. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Chas. H. Gabriel expressed this beautifully in his hymn “He Lifted Me”:

He called me long before I heard,
Before my sinful heart was stirred,
But when I took Him at His word,
Forgiven, He lifted me.

From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me,
From shades of night to plains of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me!

In Hosea, God says He drew Ephraim with “gentle cords, bands of love.” James Grindlay Small captures this in “I’ve Found a Friend”:

I’ve found a Friend, oh, such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.

Get to know God better. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life begins with knowing God. But we come to know Him increasingly more through our lives. We learn about Him from nature and other people, but the primary way of knowing Him better is through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we rest in His character and love.

Remember how He has blessed you. I’ve mentioned before “Ebenezers,” those times in your life when you especially saw God move and work in your behalf.

Meditate on His Word. I’ve referred to a few verses about God’s love. Here are a few more:

The LORD delights in you (Isaiah 62:4).

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.(Isaiah 49:15-16).

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love (Psalm 147:11).

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15).

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love (John 15:9).

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are (1 John 3:1).

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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 8:37-39).

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Listen to Scripture-based songs about God’s love, or read the lyrics. I’ve mentioned a few already. Here are some more:

“The Love of God” by Frederick Martin Lehman

“The King of Love” by H. W. Baker is based on Psalm 23:

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me
And on his shoulder gently laid
And home rejoicing brought me.

“Here Is Love” by William Rees:

Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout heav’n’s eternal days.

“How Deep the Father’s Love For Us” by Stuart Townend (This is still under copyright, so I won’t post its lyrics, but you can find them here).

“O Wondrous Love” by Steve and Vikki Cook is also still under copyright: the lyrics are here.

“I am His and He Is Mine” by George Wade Robinson:

“In Heavenly Love Abiding” by Anna Letitia Waring:

In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here:
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?

Remember God’s love and truth work hand in hand. Some people emphasize God’s love to the exclusion of His righteousness and holiness. They see God as a doddering old grandfather who overlooks any wrongdoing and slips them sweets when their mother isn’t looking. They don’t understand that God is a God of truth as well as love, that it wouldn’t be loving of Him to let us go on in our sin without chastening.

A loving parent has to say no sometimes, or require hard things. A child might feel the parent would show more love by giving everything the child wants or making life easy. But that kind of behavior is selfish rather than loving, wanting the child’s approval (or wanting to avoid a tantrum) instead of doing what would build the child’s character.

Remember God’s love is based on His character, not ours. When we’re doing what we’re supposed to, we “feel” loved by God. But when we fall and fail, we feel maybe His love has dimmed a little, if not evaporated.

But the Bible tells us that “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14). Verse 17 goes on to say, “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.”

He chastens us like a father because He loves us (Hebrew 12:5-11).

Though John 3:16 says God loves the world, that doesn’t mean the whole world has automatically become His. Some reject or ignore God’s love and gifts.

“God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).

If you’re not one of God’s children by faith in Jesus Christ, I invite you to accept His love, His sacrifice on your behalf on the cross. Click here for more information on how to know God.

If you do know God, rest in His love, remind yourself of it often.

May you “come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16).

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love. Ephesians 3:17)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Does He Still Love Me?

Posted on February 13, 2022 by Barbara Harper

Before I became a Christian, God’s law showed me I needed a Savior. I had fallen far short of God’s requirements. But my sins also made me afraid to face Him. It was God’s love that melted me and drew me.

God loved us before we knew Him: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). While we were yet sinners, Romans 5:8 says, Christ died for us. He didn’t wait until we had our act together to show love to us or to die for us. Hosea 11:4 says God drew His own with “cords of kindness, with the bands of love.” “In love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). When the man we know as the “rich young ruler” came to Jesus, naively claiming he had kept all the commandments, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mark 10:21). Then Jesus, in love, pointed out to the young man his main flaw. The young man walked away sorrowing, unwilling to give up his idol. But my hope is that he eventually did come to faith in Christ.

Does God still love me when I fail? After I became a Christian, when I failed yet again, when I allowed something back in my life that I had sworn I was done with, I was afraid to face Him. I feared punishment like sudden lightning. I dreaded profoundly disappointing Him.

Yet He loved me still. I had to learn that the love that saved me would also keep me and that sanctification (growing more Christlike) was a lifelong endeavor.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:8-14).

Does this catastrophe mean God doesn’t love me? When various trials and testings came into my life, I wondered what I had done wrong to merit them. I did not yet know that God has many reasons for suffering, that He allows them to do work in our lives that can’t be accomplished in other ways. As Joni Eareckson Tada so often says, “God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”

Does God really want the best for me? Sometimes I’d hear people say that God works everything out for our good and His glory (probably based on Romans 8:28). Occasionally I would think, “His glory, yes. But our good?” Scripture shows over and over again God going to extreme measures to show His love for His wayward people. Even though it might not feel like it in the moment, yes, He works everything together for our good.

Maybe this too-frequent tendency to forget or doubt God’s love is one reason why Paul prayed this for the Ephesians:

“. . . that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19), emphasis mine).

Paul follows up this stunning prayer with the statement that God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (verse 20). We tend to pull this verse out when we have Really Big Prayer Requests to reassure ourselves that God is able to answer them. But Paul applied it to his prayer in verses 14-19.

“To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” How can we know something that surpasses knowledge, that is beyond knowing fully?

One commentary at the bottom of the Bible Hub page on this verse says it partly means that we “may always go on from faith to faith, from knowledge to knowledge, and yet find new depths still to be fathomed.” Another says, “As the breeze fills the sails and bears forward the ship, so the love of Christ fills the soul and moves it in the direction of God’s will. But in its fullness it passeth knowledge; it is infinite, not to be grasped by mortal man, and therefore always presenting new fields to be explored, new depths to be fathomed.”

God’s goodness (another subject for another time) and God’s love are the two guardrail truths that keep me steady when things happen that I can’t understand. God will always do right, and His love for us is unshakeable.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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 8:35-39).

When we become fully assured of God’s love, we can rest in Him and quiet our fears.

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

In addition to these verses, hymns grounded in Biblical truth are rich reminders and assurances of God’s love. Here are a few of my favorites, with a sample stanza or two of each:

From “Jesus, I Am Resting, resting” by Jean Sophia Pigott:

Oh, how great Thy loving kindness,
Vaster, broader than the sea:
Oh, how marvelous Thy goodness,
Lavished all on me!
Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved,
Know what wealth of grace is Thine,
Know Thy certainty of promise,
And have made it mine.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
I behold Thee as Thou art,
And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,
Satisfies my heart,
Satisfies its deepest longings,
Meets, supplies its every need,
Compasseth me round with blessings,
Thine is love indeed.

From “I Am His and He Is Mine” by George Robinson, 1876:

Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Gracious Spirit from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so!
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine;
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.

From “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” by George Matheson, 1882:

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.

From “The Love of God” by Frederick Martin Lehman:

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

From “Here Is Love” by William Reese:

On the mount of crucifixion
fountains opened deep and wide;
through the floodgates of God’s mercy
flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
poured incessant from above,
and heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
kissed a guilty world in love.

From “Depth of Mercy” by Charles Wesley (We only hear a few verses of this song, when we hear it at all, and not always the same ones. This appears to have all the stanzas.)

Depth of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

Jesus speaks, and pleads His blood!
He disarms the wrath of God;
Now my Father’s mercies move,
Justice lingers into love.

There for me the Savior stands,
Shows His wounds and spreads His hands.
God is love! I know, I feel;
Jesus weeps and loves me still.

These verses and hymns are just small samples of the vast riches of a study of God’s love. What verses or hymns especially speak to you of God’s love?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Barbara Harper

Here are some great reads collected in the last couple of weeks.

How to Be Refreshed by Opening Your Bible.

It’s Time to Conquer that Midyear Bible Reading Slump. What a great idea to revisit the plans we made for Bible reading back in January. Michele suggests several great resources.

A Statement About Statements, HT to Challies. I appreciate the difficulty of being expected to come up with a statement on issues while still processing them.

We Need Rainy Times, HT to Challies. “We all love the sunshine, but the Arabs have a proverb that ‘all sunshine makes the desert.'”

I Know a Place, of justice, righteousness, mercy, grace, and more. HT to Challies.

Dear Worthless Cockroach, HT to Challies. “Is there anything about me (as myself, as the person I am apart from God’s saving grace) that is actually worthwhile or lovable? Am I just a worthless, sinful cockroach that God has chosen to love? And if so, am I wrong to feel bad or uneasy about this? To feel (as I sometimes do) that underneath everything, I really am pretty worthless and unlovable?”

The Exchange of Pleasures, HT to Challies. “Achieving a fitness goal and killing sin both happens through the exchange of pleasures.”

Pluckers. Proverbs 14:1 in the KJV says, “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” I enjoyed this post about ways we might unwittingly be “pluckers.”

A Cake on the Back Seat, HT to to Challies. “Dear sister, don’t underestimate your voice, especially when many others do. In speaking wisdom to us, reminding us of cakes being carried on back seats, you carry with you the spirit of Abigail as she rode out in 1 Samuel 25.”

Ten Questions Missionaries Love to Answer, HT to to Challies.

From Camping To Dining Out: Here’s How Experts Rate The Risks of 14 Summer Activities, HT to Lisa.

Giant List of Indoor Activities for Kids, HT to Story Warren. With playgrounds and restaurants closed and play dates off the calendar, this is good if you need some fresh ideas for the kids.

The Elisabeth Elliot.org site has gotten a complete overhaul in order to put the writings of Elisabeth, Jim Elliot, and their daughter, Valerie Elliot Shepard all under one “roof.” I miss “Ramblings from the Cove” that Elisabeth’s third husband, Lars, used to write, and I hope they include a word from him sometimes.

And finally, this was pretty clever. HT to Steve Laube.

Happy Saturday!

Laudable Linkage

Posted on April 18, 2020 by Barbara Harper

Here are a variety of good reads I’ve come across lately:

“Little House on the Prairie” Paper Dolls. So cute!, and generous of the creator. (I’m sorry, they were free when I first saw them, but aren’t any longer.)

Don’t Take the Fear Bait—Much to Lose, But More to Gain.

Suicide Is Not the Solution. From one who was tempted.

What Will the Virus Teach Us? “God has a purpose in everything that He does. Being the good Father that He is, He designs our lives with all kinds of opportunities to grow and change and become more like Him.”

God Hasn’t Distanced Himself From Us. “We often equate good with how comfortable we are or how safe we feel. God desires us and loves us too much to leave us in our current condition, so He calls us to walk in obedience through hard places, so we might resemble Christ more.”

A Prolonged Sabbath in a Culture of Productivity, HT to Challies. “Can I allow myself and my children to give up being productive or educated or entertained for even a small amount of time? Can I allow us to be bored? To be unessential? To rest?”

Quarantine: Nothing New Under the Sun. “Let’s seek to be a blessing, whether in our homes or online. Let’s be known for our reasonableness, not our agitation.”

How Talia’s Disabled Daughter Taught Her About the Love of God, HT to Challies.

With so many meeting “virtually” these days, I found this funny: a conference call as if it were a real life meeting. The ones I have participated in have gone much more smoothly than this, but my husband and sons have experienced many of these things.

Happy Saturday!

Praying to love more

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Barbara Harper

Valentine’s Day vies with Christmas as my favorite holiday. I’ve shared before why I think it’s worth celebrating and compiled a list of some of my favorite quotes, songs, etc. for Valentine’s Day.

Of course, everyone is free to celebrate or not celebrate the day according to their own preferences. And though I love the fun and even silly aspects of the day, today I want to take a different tack.

One of my ongoing struggles in my Christian life is learning to love as Jesus did, and my biggest obstacle is my own selfishness.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 14:4-7

Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 1 Peter 1:22

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

Whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. 1 John 2:5

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:2-3 (This might be a surprising one to some, but Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If we love someone we don’t disregard their words: we take heed and try to keep them. He also said all the law and the prophets hang on to the command to love God and our neighbor.)

I was just discussing with a friend earlier this week how we often hear that Christian love is not just a warm fuzzy feeling: rather, as one professor used to put it, it’s a “self-sacrificing desire to meet the needs of the cherished person.” I think of a mother being awakened at 2 a.m. by her baby’s cries. She might not feel lovey-dovey right at first: in fact she might feel a little irritable. But she knows her baby needs her, and often, some time during their nocturnal meeting, that warm, loving feeling rises up again.

However, the opening of the great love chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, warns us that we can make substantial sacrifices without doing so in love.

In my ongoing quest to understand what Christian love is and to grow in it, I compiled Bible verses which specifically spoke of praying to love. I sometimes use them for my own prayers.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19. (It’s interesting to note that right after this prayer comes Paul’s’ declaration, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . . “)

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

Of course, it helps to remember that love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and I can only be filled with love as I am filled with Him.

And since we’re to love as God does did, it helps to meditate on how He showed love to us. That would take more study and a different post, but here are a few ways:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:16

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

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. 1 John 4:10

Those verses don’t enlighten me as to the “feeling” part of love, but they show that God loved first, He loved people who were enemies to Him, and He made every provision, at the highest cost to Himself, to redeem them.

The more I think about the myriad ways He has shown His love to me, the more His love will fill me and overflow to others.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. John 15:9

(Sharing with Literary Musing Monday)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 2, 2018 by Barbara Harper

Here’s my latest round-up of noteworthy reads on the Web:

How to Shipwreck Your Theology. ““What is the most brilliant theology good for if it is to be shipwrecked in one’s own house?”

Maybe Women are Some of the Worst Offenders.

9 Things to Know About a Widow’s Grief.

Love Letter to a Lesbian, HT to True Woman, from a former lesbian.

“Let Me Know How I Can Help!” (This Will, Because They Won’t), HT to Linda. Practical ways to ask for or offer help in a time of need.

How Breastfeeding Changed My View of God, HT to True Woman. “God’s love for us is no Hallmark sentiment. This image is not primarily a celebration of our newborn cuteness…Rather, this verse reveals God’s hard-won, self-giving, dogged commitment to our good, a refusal to let us go—however frustrating we become, an insistence on seeing his image in us—and a painful provision for our most desperate need.”

C. S. Lewis’s Wonderful Letters to Children. I love his manner with them.

A Pathway to a Full Life.

This is cool and somewhat mesmerizing to watch: magnetism in slow motion, HT to The Story Warren:

Happy Saturday!

Loving like Jesus

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Barbara Harper

Once a missionary was troubled because she didn’t love others the way she knew she should. For years she continually berated herself with the need to be more loving, but she continually failed, leaving her continually discouraged. Finally she started to meditate on God’s love for her, and without realizing it, her life was transformed so much that people asked her husband what had happened to her.

I’ve shared this story before. Though I’ve lost track of its source, it has always inspired me because I can identify with it so well. I’m frequently appalled at my selfishness and often tell myself “I need to be more loving,” but, like the missionary, I continually fail. But when I meditate on His love for me, His love flows through me to others.

Since Jesus told us to “love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34; 15:12), I decided to look at some aspects of His love for us.

An initiating love. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, ESV). God loved us even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6), ESV).

A gracious love. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, ESV). He loved us when we were most unlovable and undeserving. He didn’t wait for us to “clean up” or get “good enough.”

A sacrificing love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV). God gave not just a pittance, not just a fraction, but rather what was most dear to Him. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).

A forgiving 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.” (1 John 4:10, NLT).

A kind love. “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:3-6, ESV).

A longsuffering love. “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Numbers 14:18a, ESV).

A correcting love. “My son, do not despise the Lord‘s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11-12, ESV). God’s love is not indulgent. Sometimes love involves doing the hard thing of bringing sin to the surface so it can be dealt with.

This just barely scratches the surface of God’s love for us.

In the parable of the unforgiving servant, a man was forgiven a massive debt. However, instead of extending that same grace that he had received to others, he withheld forgiveness of someone’s very small debt and exacted a penalty. That story opened up to me the realization that my forgiveness towards another isn’t based on whether or not they “deserve it.” I did not deserve forgiveness, either. My forgiveness of others should be based on the fact that God has forgiven me so much more than anything I have had to forgive.

It’s the same with God’s love. My love for others should be an overflow of God’s great love for me. He took the first step in loving me, so I should not wait on others to make the first move. His love came at a great sacrifice, so I should not be surprised when love costs me. He loved me at my most unworthy and forgave a multitude of my offenses, so how can I withhold love from others?

Let me hasten to say that exactly how this works out in individual lives will vary. I’m thinking particularly of people who came out of abusive situations. Though we’re still called to love and forgive, and we need God’s grace to do so, we also need His wisdom to know how to navigate all the factors in such a relationship.

I frequently pray for God to help me be more loving, and He graciously speaks to my heart from His Word. Just last week, one day I came across passages about God’s love from three different sources just in my regular devotional reading, without trying to coordinate a study on this topic at all (that’s part of what prompted this post).

So while I continue to pray that I might be “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:14-19), that “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians 1:9-11), and that God would make me “increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-12), I also pray and seek God’s Word to “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [I] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2, ESV)

(Sharing with Inspire Me Monday, Literary Musing Monday), Coffee for Your Heart, Porch Stories, Wise Woman)