To "Know" Him is to Love Him.

Before we fall in love with someone, we usually get to know them. Someone might be gorgeous, and looking at them from "across a crowded room" might spark interest or desire for them, but to fall in love... it's most often because we have spent time with that "someone" and we are beginning to know their personality and "nature".

Many people find it difficult to love God. Why? Because we really don't know God. We might honor and respect God, but He wants us to love Him, like He loves us. That can be difficult if we are not interested in knowing God. 

Lets look at some scripture that gives us a basic understanding about God. Read them with an open mind. Put aside any preconceived notions about God, and let's take a look at what the Bible says about Him.


1. God IS Love and He loves us.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.


1 John 4:16-1
16. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19. We love, because He first loved us.


Romans 5:5-8
5. and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 3:17-19

17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18. may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19. and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

2. God has understanding of human emotion and He loves us with passion.


Zephaniah 3:17
"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

John 11:33-36
33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her, [also] weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, 34. and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." 35. Jesus wept. 36. And so the Jews were saying, "Behold how He loved him!"  

Matthew 9:35-36
35. And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 36. And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

We've looked at a lot of scripture, yet we have only scratched the surface in seeing how much and how deep God loves us. So many people look and think of God with the same "lens" that they use with their earthly father, yet God's love for us is incomparable. Earthly love comes no where near what God the Father feels for us. He is perfect and has perfect love for us.

Matthew 23: 37-39
37. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38. "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39. "For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

I was just thinking last night about how I had heard on television once about a forest fire, and how they had found a momma bird in the aftermath that was scorched and lifeless, sitting on her nest. When the forestry people picked up her stiff charred body, a group of healthy baby birds were alive underneath. They were untouched by the ravages of the fire. Even though the momma could have flown away to safety she chose to stay and protect her little ones. My heart broke at the thought that Jesus is like that momma bird with us. He chose to stay and sacrifice Himself, so that we might have life.

I hope you think on these tender verses about Father God, and His Son, Jesus; that you might understand His great and passionate love for each one of us.

Blessings for a wonderful Day!

Debra

p.s. Laura asked a wonderful question about the Hebraic priesthood. Check the comments from yesterday if you have a moment.