The Love of God
The unconditional Love of God is uncomprehendable to the human mind.
The Bible speaks of God's love for us. Below are a just a few examples:
1 John 4:11 tells us to love one another, as God loves us. This is all well and good, however try and put it into practice and you will quickly realise that it is a difficult thing to do, if not impossible at times. To try and comprehend the scale of God's love for us, let us turn to Hosea:
Hosea 3:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
Here, the Lord is telling Hosea the prophet to go and love a woman who is loved by somebody else and has committed adultery countless times. I'm sure all who read this have at sometime in their life been betrayed, or hurt by somebody elses actions, maybe some have experienced the pains of adultery and unfaithfulness first hand. If you have you will know of the bitter taste that it leaves in your mouth and the hole in your chest, therefore we should all be able to appreciate how difficult a task God is asking Hosea to do. If we have been hurt or betrayed by somebody we love or somebody we know those scars last for a long time, maybe even forever. The feelings that we experience creep into every area of our lives. They can literally be soul destroying if we let them. To continue to love the person responsible is difficult. To unconditionally love that person and forget what has been done altogether is a completely different ball game. It is a sobering thought.
If we read Hosea 3:1 we can see that this is what the Lord does. God makes a comparison between Hosea loving a woman who has committed adultery, and His love for His people, Israel, who countlessly committed adultery through rejecting God, their Father and worshipping other Gods.
If we read Hebrews 8:12, we can see how much God raises the bar on love: not only will God continue to love His people, but He will forget everything that they have done to Him and love them unconditionally as if they are perfect.
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
This is how powerful the love of God for us is. Even though we have rejected Him, turned our backs on Him, mocked Him, disobeyed Him and committed horrible and shameful acts of sin, still He loves us, and still He promises that He will be merciful and faithful to us when we ask and He will forgive our sins and remember them no more. (1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.")
Matthew 18:21-22 "21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
If somebody I loved committed a serious wrong against me I may continue to love them but I'd struggle to forgive them once, never mind seven times. To our human minds, seven times is pretty generous in itself! ... But Jesus says, just as God will forgive us of our sins again and again and again, we should forgive those who do wrong against us, "not seven times, but seventy-seven times"!
If you are struggling with forgiveness issues, you are certainly not alone. Sin and bad mistakes are devastating, but through Jesus Christ we can be healed, physically and emotionally. Isaiah 1:18 tells us: “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." Not only can God help us with our own personal shame and grief, but He helps us to forgive others for the wrongs they have committed and the hurt they have caused.
Contemplate Ephesians 5:25-29 which compares earthly marriage to that between Christ and the church.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
Hosea provides us with a picture of Israel as an unfaithful woman, certainly unfit to be a bride for anyone yet God still loved them unconditionally. Through the death of Christ on the cross that same bride, is able to appear before God perfect and without blemish. We too must forgive our brothers and sisters and our wives and our husbands in Christ, and see them as Christ sees them - perfect and without blemish.
Forgive those who have hurt you or are hurting you. Pray for the ability to forgive and pray that the negative feelings are taken away.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
If you think this task is hard, or impossible remember just how powerful God's love is for you and remember that “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ( Matthew 19:26)
-BACChristian
The Bible speaks of God's love for us. Below are a just a few examples:
1 John 4:11 tells us to love one another, as God loves us. This is all well and good, however try and put it into practice and you will quickly realise that it is a difficult thing to do, if not impossible at times. To try and comprehend the scale of God's love for us, let us turn to Hosea:
Hosea 3:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
Here, the Lord is telling Hosea the prophet to go and love a woman who is loved by somebody else and has committed adultery countless times. I'm sure all who read this have at sometime in their life been betrayed, or hurt by somebody elses actions, maybe some have experienced the pains of adultery and unfaithfulness first hand. If you have you will know of the bitter taste that it leaves in your mouth and the hole in your chest, therefore we should all be able to appreciate how difficult a task God is asking Hosea to do. If we have been hurt or betrayed by somebody we love or somebody we know those scars last for a long time, maybe even forever. The feelings that we experience creep into every area of our lives. They can literally be soul destroying if we let them. To continue to love the person responsible is difficult. To unconditionally love that person and forget what has been done altogether is a completely different ball game. It is a sobering thought.
If we read Hosea 3:1 we can see that this is what the Lord does. God makes a comparison between Hosea loving a woman who has committed adultery, and His love for His people, Israel, who countlessly committed adultery through rejecting God, their Father and worshipping other Gods.
If we read Hebrews 8:12, we can see how much God raises the bar on love: not only will God continue to love His people, but He will forget everything that they have done to Him and love them unconditionally as if they are perfect.
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
This is how powerful the love of God for us is. Even though we have rejected Him, turned our backs on Him, mocked Him, disobeyed Him and committed horrible and shameful acts of sin, still He loves us, and still He promises that He will be merciful and faithful to us when we ask and He will forgive our sins and remember them no more. (1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.")
Matthew 18:21-22 "21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
If somebody I loved committed a serious wrong against me I may continue to love them but I'd struggle to forgive them once, never mind seven times. To our human minds, seven times is pretty generous in itself! ... But Jesus says, just as God will forgive us of our sins again and again and again, we should forgive those who do wrong against us, "not seven times, but seventy-seven times"!
If you are struggling with forgiveness issues, you are certainly not alone. Sin and bad mistakes are devastating, but through Jesus Christ we can be healed, physically and emotionally. Isaiah 1:18 tells us: “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." Not only can God help us with our own personal shame and grief, but He helps us to forgive others for the wrongs they have committed and the hurt they have caused.
Contemplate Ephesians 5:25-29 which compares earthly marriage to that between Christ and the church.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
Hosea provides us with a picture of Israel as an unfaithful woman, certainly unfit to be a bride for anyone yet God still loved them unconditionally. Through the death of Christ on the cross that same bride, is able to appear before God perfect and without blemish. We too must forgive our brothers and sisters and our wives and our husbands in Christ, and see them as Christ sees them - perfect and without blemish.
Forgive those who have hurt you or are hurting you. Pray for the ability to forgive and pray that the negative feelings are taken away.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
If you think this task is hard, or impossible remember just how powerful God's love is for you and remember that “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ( Matthew 19:26)
-BACChristian
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