“. . . Because the Lord your God loves you,” Deuteronomy 23:5, NKJV
Those last three words, “God loves you,” are a salve for the broken-hearted and for hurting souls everywhere. If nobody else tells you, it’s three little words that God wants you to know: “God loves you.” If nobody else will show you, God said, “I will!”
Human emotions are so fickle. One day we’re up, and the next, we are down. Depending on which phase of life we are in, our perception of reality can be altered by how we feel during that current moment. If we are up, then it is not hard to fathom love coming from every direction, centering on us and making us feel good about ourselves. But, it is just the opposite when we are experiencing a downward phase. We, in essence, can be living in a whole house full of people, right under the same roof as yourself, and feel completely devoid of love, feeling empty, as you try to hand out to others what you do not feel coming to you. Love.
Love is not a plaything. It is not a joke. It is a passion that dwells inside each of us, hungering to be fed, desiring to experience fullness. I do not know anyone in their right mind who does not want to be loved. Who in the world is there that doesn’t want to be cherished by another? Who doesn’t want to feel cherished by another? Who does not desire the tender security of love wrapped around them, embracing them until every inch of our hearts can experience that affectionate overflow?
To deny the need for love is to deny the way God created us. 1 John 4:8, NKJV, says, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Love is instilled in each of us as part of His creation. “God is love,” and in the Book of Genesis, we read, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .” (1:26, NKJV). We were made to feel and do as God does, and that means love, also.
“God loves you!” Throughout the pages of the Bible, the overflow of all He feels for us is proclaimed over and over again. He has plenty of evidence to mark the extremes of His love for us. Here in Deuteronomy 23:5, He is noted as reversing a curse because He loves His people. But His ultimate show of love came when He initiated His plan to reverse the curse of sin once and for all. The plan was successful, but it did not come without a price. His love for us cost the life of His Son, John 3:16. All that was done so that one day we might experience the joy of what it means to be loved, such a tender embrace wrapped around us that can’t be felt anywhere else.
“God loves you!” While human love can and will be fickle, God said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you,” (Jeremiah 31:3, NKJV). There will come a day when “He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love,” (Zephaniah 3:17, NKJV). That is His tender embrace in action, that strong love that quiets everything else and gives us rest. It is like stepping into His arms, the arms of love and crying it all out, and feeling nothing but His love come over you. Knowing that God loves us in such a way inspires us for today. When we feel this love, it makes the broken heart feel revived, and the hurting soul feels lifted once again. We may not always get the love from humanity that we seek (and I will not downplay the need for that), but “God loves you!” Unlike our human counterparts and those we seek affection from, God’s love will not fail us. It is the real thing!
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