God is Love
Happy Valentines Day Everyone! I wanted to talk to you today about how God is Love. I chose this specific topic for today because recently I wanted to challenge myself to understand God's love FOR ME, because honestly, I don't fully get it. I still have a disconnect between my head and my heart on this... and that's where my faith really has to step in and fill the gap.
To be purely adored, appreciated, seen, and accepted for everything I AM and AM NOT makes me feel vulnerable and when I’m vulnerable, although there’s lots of good that comes with that, there’s the risk of being hurt or disappointed, and that terrifies me…even though it’s God- who I know with my head knowledge will never hurt or disappoint me, but nevertheless, my past experiences of trauma and disappointment make love complicated.
I want to set the tone and acknowledge that when I talk about God being Love today, I know that there’s many that will struggle with this concept, because I’m one of them.
Thankfully I know the disconnection between the head and the heart is a normal thing for humans. The disconnection means there’s something blocking the connection between the head and heart…and the remedy for breakthrough are the 2 T’s. Time and Truth.
So let’s not judge ourselves, but seek God for the TRUTH and be patient with the TIME it takes for the breakthroughs. And to understand his truth, we must look to scripture.
The bottom line about love, is that no matter your experience with love in the past or present, IT DOES NOT determine your experience in the future, or change God’s love for you. Our experience of love can be healed, developed, and cultivated when we start to understand God’s love for us.
I’m embarrassed to admit, that until studying for this teaching, I didn’t truly understand and am still in the process of understanding that God not only loves us, HE IS LOVE. In 1 John 4:8, it says, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
So, What does that even mean? Well, God is multidimensional. He’s so good and pure, that he’s literally made up of love. This is a heady concept, so let’s stop and pray that God softens our hearts and opens our minds to understand Him as Love.
God, Thank you for BEING Love and showing us love. Help us to understand WHO you are and to receive your love. I pray for breakthroughs today and that we all leave here with a new understanding of you and your love. Let my words reflect your heart. Thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Because God is love, and we want to learn more about HIM, we need a proper understanding of what love is, which the bible conveniently provides for us:
It’s the verse that every wedding seems to have in their ceremony, mine included! I’m going to read it in the New King James Version because it uses different descriptive words that I believe will give you new perspectives on a familiar verse.
Here it is. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
We have established that God is Love and so by learning about love, we’re learning about Him and therefore, the words God and love can technically be interchangeable in this passage.
Let’s read the passage again, replacing “love” with God.
God suffers long and is kind; God does not envy; God does not parade himself, God is not puffed up; God does not behave rudely, God does not seek His own, God is not provoked, God thinks no evil; God does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never fails.
God is so good.
So let’s break it down and as I talk about each element of God, I’m going to give you some time to reflect on a question to challenge your own perspective of God. I encourage you to write your answers down, so you can share them with your table! Okay, here’s the first part of the verse.
God suffers long and is kind.
Basically, God is patient. “Suffers long” isn’t a term we use often, but it does give patience a new flavor and puts a different spin on the word patient, when you think about suffering for a long time. God does not lose his patience with us. He is always kind. Over and over in the Bible we read of His children turning from Him…then to Him…then from Him…then to Him. He always remained steady, with an open invitation for them to return. But it’s not just His children in the bible, right?
This is totally us. We’re all in after a great time at Church or Sisterhood, then we leave the doors and step into real life, and somehow forget all the amazing things we learned about God. Our hot mess moments don’t phase him though. He is always there, just patiently waiting for us to turn back to him.
So, not only is He is patient, He is so kind too. , He shows us unconditional love. The type of love that doesn’t expect anything in return nor is contingent on whether we “deserve” it. This is demonstrated in the story about the prodigal son…or my own personal version, young girl goes out into the world, parties, sleeps around, and finally gets to a point that she knows she needs to go back to the Lord because she’s completely lost herself and He’s right there waiting for Her.
So, here’s my first question for you. How has God shown you patience and kindness in your life? Take a moment and write down what comes to mind when you think about God loving you patiently and kindly.
So, the next element of Love that God demonstrates, is not being envious.
God does not envy.
Although God is jealous, He is not envious. This was something I found really interesting as I was researching this topic. Envy and jealousy are not the same thing. Envy is the uneasiness or discontentment we feel towards another’s success or blessings. With envy, there’s usually an emotional effort or desire to depreciate the person and see them with less.
Jealousy on the other hand, is an uneasiness that we feel when we fear that something or someone may take something we love. When the Bible says God is “jealous,” we understand that because God loves us so much, He is passionate that we not love anyone or anything else more than Him. Our Lord is passionate about being first place in our heart. No one is superior to Him anyway, so He is never threatened by anyone’s success.
Here's my question for you to reflect on: What have you become more obsessed with, above loving God? and What do you need to do so He will not be jealous anymore in this area?
You’re doing great. Some of these questions may be easier than others to answer and that is okay. Allow yourself to stay curious and not be judgmental.
The next element of God, is that
God does not parade Himself; He is not puffed up.
God is so humble. He wasn’t born into a royal family, or even to a “normal” couple. A teenager that had never had sex, was his mom and some very understanding dude decided to step up and be his stand-in baby daddy. Even when Jesus was at his peak of popularity, instead of riding in on a white stallion or a chariot, he chose a donkey.
He is the epitome of not being extra.
God is love and part of love is not being too EXTRA for the sake of getting attention. His choice not to be puffed up was so he could relate to us normal people and we wouldn’t have an opportunity to say, “well God just doesn’t understand”. He absolutely does. In Phil 2: 6-7 it says,
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privilege; he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
Here’s your question for this element of God. What about God’s relatable-ness inspires you?
This next element of God is one of my favorites.
God does not behave rudely.
God is a gentleman. So, I’m originally from Alaska and it’s hearty bunch of people that live there, that are all really independent, so chivalry isn’t really a thing. Well, when I moved to Texas, I swear I didn’t open my own door the entire 2.5 years I was there. I was called ma’am and treated with such respect! It was a breath of fresh air. The point being, since God is love, He wants to open your door, call you his child, and treat you with respect!
In Matthew 9, there is a story of a woman that had a super uncomfortable disease that made her bleed all.the.time. She was perpetually on her period. She was ignored and considered the outcast of outcasts because she was considered dirty. It was guilt by association and anyone that was around her was also considered dirty. This woman came to Jesus for healing and Jesus willingly let her touch him, to prove a point that He loves everyone and treats everyone respectfully. He sweetly said to her, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” He didn’t just heal her; He called her daughter—an intimate relationship which means she belonged to Him. He loved her. Our Jesus is not rude. He is Love.
Question: On the days that you feel dirty and like a hot mess, do you avoid God for fear that he’ll be rude and tell you to get your act together or believe that He’ll always respond sweetly?
God does not seek His own.
God isn’t selfish and doesn’t force his will on us. He doesn’t operate in “what about ME?” mode. This could not be any more obvious than it was in Gethsemane, the night He was murdered! In the most stressful situation one could ever be in, where He physically sweat blood, He chose to pray and do God’s will, not insisting on His own rights or desires. He did what needed to be done to save us.
In Luke 22:41–42, it says,
…He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Jesus did not deserve to be treated the way that He was. He could have insisted He was innocent and shouldn’t be the one paying the price for sins He didn’t commit. But He did not. He didn’t seek his own comfort, he died for OUR comfort in eternity.
Here is a question to reflect on: What do you think about Jesus being willing to give up everything for you? And here’s one step deeper, “Are you willing to give up everything for Him?”
The next element of God is that He isn’t provoked.
God is not provoked.
God constantly demonstrates keeping his cool. I can definitely sound like a winy little kid at times with all my questions and complaints, but he doesn’t get an attitude with me or get bothered by my constant requests for help when I get myself into a mess. He doesn’t resent me for disobeying or sinning. I don’t have to walk on eggshells. I can pour my heart out to him without feeling like I irritate Him…What confidence and peace this gives me!
We get to share our hearts openly with Him. This doesn’t mean He won’t correct us when we step out of line, but He won’t be irritated and offended.
Alright, are you ready to reflect on this element of God? What would you ask of God if you truly believed he wouldn’t be irritated with you for asking him?
God thinks no evil.
Do you have someone in your life that constantly reminds you of things you’ve messed up on in the past…or maybe have a really loud internal critic, like me that constantly tells you how you’re messing up all the time? Our Lord doesn’t do that. He didn’t remind Peter over and over that he was the one who betrayed Him three times and He didn’t remind Thomas that he doubted. He didn’t throw their mistakes in their faces. Love doesn’t do that. God does not keep a ledger, recording everything you’ve done as a credit or debit. He isn’t keeping score. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:1- “For there is no condemnation for those in Christ.”
Let’s be thankful that God loves us so much, that he doesn’t condemn us or keep a running count of our mess-ups!
The Question for this section is: In what surprising ways has God showed up for you in your life that proves that He doesn’t condemn you?
God does not rejoice in iniquity; He rejoices in the truth.
God is so happy when you choose to live your life based on HIS truth and on the flip side, when you’re off course, whether with outright sin, or a negative attitude, God is going to correct you—because He loves you! In both Hebrews and Proverbs, it talks about God disciplining those He loves. He doesn’t want you bound by anxiety, entitlement, laziness, addiction, or extreme independence. He wants you FREE and walking in TRUTH. Jesus said we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.
It delights God when we embrace what He teaches us. Our actions prove we are His disciples, and this brings Him joy—and so does the freedom He created for us to live in! He wants us to be free!
Question: How has God showed up in your life that has given you the boldness to walk in truth and freedom?
God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
God is always with us, whether we want him there or not. He can put up with anything because he’s seen and heard it all. You cannot scare him away. When I was working in the prison system, many of the inmates would try to shock me with their stories to test if they could trust me. Thankfully God gifted me with His eyes to see all people equally, no matter what they’ve done, and I was able to look at them and tell them that no matter what they had done or had done to them, it DID NOT DEFINE THEM. They were God’s child and you’re God’s child. God is Love. God bears up under every possible situation. He doesn’t cave. He upholds. He endures. His love never weakens. He is steady, consistent, and unchanging in ALL circumstances
Question: What do you know about God, that assures you it’s impossible to scare God away?
God never fails.
God is never ineffective or inefficient. He never loses His way. We can count on Him to always be there. There are tons of other things we can choose to depend on in our lives, BUT NOT ONE OF THEM of them will always follow through Like God will. Even if a person is 100% willing to help you, that doesn’t make them 100% able. When I think back on all the challenging times in my life, I see God in it all. Did I see it at the time, nope, but that’s why it’s so important for me to reflect and learn from my past. God was there through my parent’s divorce, through mental abuse, through sexual abuse, through fear, through birthing 2 babies, through moves, through disappointment, through the good and the bad. He’s been there through it all.
People fail. Systems fail. Programs fail. We ourselves fail. But God never fails.
Now, here is the last and final question to ask yourself about God and His love for you: How has God showed up for you in your life, that assures you that he will never fail you?
All of these elements of God come together with the ultimate manifestation of God’s Love, which was having Jesus show up on this earth! God literally gave us a living, breathing demonstration of what love looks and sounds like. John 3:16 sums it up, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life
Jesus came to this earth even before we had a chance to get our act together. He knew we were a hot mess down here on earth and still decided to make the trek and show up because He loves us.
Jesus gave His time, His wisdom, His help, His encouragement. He gave selflessly in every way, even to the end when He gave His very last breath. He gave it all.
Our God LOVES and Our God IS love.
Dear God, thank you for this opportunity to teach your truth. I pray that the conversations are fruitful and breakthroughs happen. In Jesus’ Name. Amen