You Are Loved

In John 15:9 it says "I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me.  You must continually let my love nourish your hearts." (The Passion Translation)

What kind of love did the Father and Jesus have for each other?

• Other person focused
• Honoring of the other person
• Lays down life for the other person
• Obeys because of Love
• Submission to one another

Love requires relationship

The fact that God is one, and is expressed as a trinity of persons, shows us that relationship is deeply involved in love.  Notice in our list above, it always involved another person.  While love can be expressed to another person, that does not mean that love will be returned, or that a relationship will be created.  It can be rejected, which is also rejecting the relationship.

God sent His son Jesus and proved His desire for a restored relationship with us, by having Jesus pay the heavy price for our choice for independence and sin.  This was love in action, and it has allowed us to have a love relationship with God that would otherwise never happen.

Love is a person

1 John 4:16b says "God is love!"  God is the definition of love.

This is hard to express, because most of us think that love is a feeling or an idea.  To actually understand that Love is a person, indicates that there is a source for Love that is beyond my definition, and that this love is not static, but rather is dynamic and involved in my moment by moment experience.

Indeed, because Love is a person, we have someone to look at and see how he demonstrates love, and we can experience His love, which changes us to love in the way He loves us.

How do I stay in Jesus’ love?

John 15:10 says: “If you keep my commands, you will live in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands, for I continually live nourished and empowered by his love.”

I see this verse and almost immediately go into a performance oriented point of view.  In order to be loved, I must obey.  It took me a long time to realize I was viewing it in the wrong direction.

God is telling us that Jesus loves us first with the same love that Father God loves Jesus.  This is huge.  And because I am loved by God, and I am experiencing His love, I want to obey His commands.  I want to show Jesus my appreciation and this happens when I obey His commands.

Additionally, as I receive the Love of God, and will also express my love to Him through worship, adoration and praise.  I will worship through my every day experiences in life, both good and bad experiences.  These all become opportunities to walk in His love and to go deeper with Him by depending on His Love and depending on His point of view as to what is happening in life.

Experiencing God's Love

In 1 John 4:16 it says "We have come into an intimate experience with God's love, and we trust in the love he has for us..." (The Passion Translation)

Have you had an intimate experience with God's love?  Have you had this experience more than one time?  Are you able to describe the experience?  Is it purely emotional?  What does an intimate experience with God's love look like?

Who do you trust?  Is it because they love you and you know and have experienced their love?

We are told that God loves us, but hearing this doesn't translate into an intimate experience with His love.  I began experiencing God's love much later in life.  I received Jesus and His salvation when I was a child, and I was delighted to know that I was saved.  But the environment of training I received talked about God's love, but didn't help me to know and experience His love personally.  I was encouraged to pursue Him through reading God's word, by attending church and youth meetings.  I was encouraged to participate in various activities, but in my immaturity I took this as a means to perform and looked to gain approval and acceptance.  I didn't understand that I was loved first just because I was made in God's image.  I am apart of the family of God as a son, not something I earn, but rather I was given this position because of what Jesus had done for me.

My view of God and His love for me as Father changed when I attended one of the events at Shiloh Place Ministries.  At the event, there was teaching on exactly how much God loved me, and there was physical demonstrations of this to me.  I was given a long Fatherly hug by an older gentlemen.  He held me and then spoke of God to me in my ear, how He was proud of me, cared about me.  That God sees me and accepts me.  During ministry times and the breakout groups, the leadership would lay hands on me as they prayed which I greatly appreciated, because this was again a physical expression of God's love for me and to me.

I walked away a changed man and my view of how much God loved me.  I had experienced God's love in a real way, a way that was unique to me and my relationship with Jesus.  And because of this change one of my daughters testified that finally she had the dad that she always wanted.  Someone who listened to them, loved them unconditionally, and was depending on Holy Spirit during all conversations and interactions.

Because of God's love touching me so deeply, my trust level with Him deepened.  My communication with Him opened up more.  I now new that He loved me regardless of the circumstances and my behavior.  God loved me as I was - but He loved me too much to leave me where I was.  God pursued me and He has been walking with me my whole life, whether I recognized it or not.  As I was given revelation of His love and His desire for me to have a relationship with Him, it caused me to be drawn to Him.  I received Him as my Savior, I received Him as my Lord and I wanted an interactive relationship with Him.

Today, I still long for a deeper experience with God's love.  I love to worship Him and to be in His presence, but I want to continually know deeply that I am loved, and to live in the intimate place of friendship, sonship and companionship with Jesus.

God Loves You

You are loved, but the question is can you receive God's love?  Will you receive God's love?  Father God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit has done all that is necessary to allow for you to enter into a place of personal relationship with Him.  He wants a reconciled and restored relationship with you.  He wants to deepen His relationship with you.  Sometimes there are wounds and trauma in our lives that are skewing how we view what love is and who God is.  The first step to healing those wounds and resolving the trauma in our lives is to turn to Jesus and receive and accept His love for you.  Will you take that step?

To take that step, just start talking to Jesus out loud.  Tell Him what you are thinking.  Tell Him what you have done that is wrong.  Run to Him as someone who is safe to be with.  He is safe to talk to about anything.  He will meet you and hold you in His arms just where you are right now.