Convictions – Part 2
Prizes and Rewards
One more week in February. If you are still keeping track of how many days you are reading or listening to, some portion of scripture, send me your totals on February 28th and I will arrange for you to receive your prize!
Prayer
This weekend I will be in Regina, Saskatchewan. If you are so moved I would appreciate your prayer for an anointed weekend. Thank you! If you would like to receive ongoing prayer requests when I am ministering at conferences and retreats in the future, send me an email and I will be happy to notify you of these events.
Convictions, Part 2
God is Love
Love is not simply one of many attributes of God. Love is His nature. It is His essence. God is love. All the time. From the inside out. God oozes love from every pore of His divine being. Love is not part of His DNA, Love is His DNA. “God is love” (1 John 4:16).
Sports fans often exclaim they bleed the colors of their favorite team. A Steeler’s fan might say “I bleed black and gold!” As we ponder the truth of the scripture passages in this short message, we discover that we are God’s favorite team. He is for us. “This I know, that God is for me.” (Psalms 56:9)
The Father’s heart of love was exposed in sending Jesus to die for us. Love was manifested at Calvary when it bled red, revealing love both amazing and divine. “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)
His love, like His nature, is eternal and everlasting. “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
He does not have emotional mood swings or experience mid-life crises, for God never changes. “For I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)
God’s heart is absolutely pure. His deeds and actions are all motivated by perfect love. We have difficulty conceiving of such a wonderful being with pure motives for our heart is deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17). We don’t even know our own heart. What we have observed can be disconcerting, for we discover we sometimes do the right things for the wrong reasons and other times we do the wrong things for the right reasons. But God’s loving heart is pure, constant, and steadfast. “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end” (Lamentations 3:22).
This is our Dad, our Savior, and our Friend. Everything we know about love, we learned from Him. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
May we each have the love of God “poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5 NASB)
Steve
