Understanding God’s Love Part 2 (Verses)

Understanding God’s Love Part 2 (Verses) 

 By Jacob Dann

So in my earlier blog (Understanding God’s Love) one of the things I talked about was how we can use the bible as a weapon against the devil, and use it to fight the lies he puts in our mind that God doesn’t love us. There are so many verses in the bible that tell us God loves us, and reading and memorising these verses can really help us to understand God’s love more, and go to God in confidence when the devil tries to shake us. So here are some verses I’ve found about God’s unending love.

Romans 5:8- But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Zephaniah 3:17- The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Psalm 86:15 - But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Proverbs 8:17 - I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

Psalm 136:26- Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God

 

The Father’s Love Letter – By Barry Adams

My Child…

You may not know me, but I know everything about you (Psalm 139:1)

I know when you sit down and when you rise up (Psalm 139:2)

I am familiar with all your ways (Psalm 139:3)

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered (Matthew 10:29-31)

For you were made in my image (Genesis 1:27)

In me you live and move and have your being (Acts 17:28)

For you are my offspring (Acts 17:28)

I knew you even before you were conceived (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

I chose you when I planned creation (Ephesians 1:11-12)

You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book (Psalm 139:15-16)

I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live (Acts 17:26)

You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)

I knit you together in your mother womb (Psalm 139:13)

And bought you forth on the day you were born (Psalm 71:6)

I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me (John 8:41-44)

I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love (1 John 4:16)

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you (1 John 3:1)

Simply because you are my child and I am your father (1 John 3:1)

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could (Matthew 7:11)

For I am the perfect father (Matthew 5:48)

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand (James 1:17)

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs (Matthew 6:31-33)

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope (Jeremiah 29:11)

Because I love you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)

My thoughts towards you are countless as the sand on the seashore (Psalms 139:17-18)

And I rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17)

I will never stop doing good to you (Jeremiah 32:40)

For you are my treasured possession (Exodus 19:5)

I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul (Jeremiah 32:41)

And I want to show you great and marvellous things (Jeremiah 33:3)

If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4)

For it is I who gave you those desires (Philippians 2:13)

I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine (Ephesians 3:20)

For I am your greatest encourager (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)

I am also the father you comforts you in all your troubles (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

When you are broken-hearted, I am close to you (Psalm 34:18)

As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart (Isaiah 40:11)

One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes (Revelation 21:3-4)

And I’ll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth (Revelation 21:3-4)

I am your father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus (John 17:23)

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed (John 17:26)

He is the exact representation of my being (Hebrews 1:3)

He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you (Romans 8:31)

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you (1 John 4:10)

I gave up everything that I loved that I might gain your love (Romans 8:31-32)

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me (1 John 2:23)

And nothing will ever separate you from my love again (Romans 8:38-39)

Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen (Luke 15:7)

I have always been father and will always be father (Ephesians 3:14-15)

My question is… will you be my child (John 1:12-13)

I am waiting for you (Luke 15:11-32)

Love, your Dad. Almighty God.

 

I hope these verses and the ‘love letter’ have helped inspire and strengthen you, I wanted to end with a lyric from one of my favourite Christian songs, ‘you love me anyway’ by The Sidewalk Prophets… ‘I am the thorn in your crown, but you love me anyway. I am the sweat from your brow, but you love me anyway. I am the nail in your wrist, but you love me anyway. I am Judas’s kiss, but you love me anyway.’

Understanding God’s Love      By Jacob Dann

Almost every Christian book I’ve read, song I’ve listened to, bible verse or preach I’ve heard have mentioned something about God’s love. In fact phrases like ‘God loves you’ are thrown around so much they can sometimes go in one ear and out the other. Or sometimes we just simply don’t believe it. I can definitely relate to that one! From the day I became a Christian to very recently I really struggled to believe that God loved me, every time someone would say ‘God loves you’ I would think ‘how!? How could God love me?’ But in the last few weeks I’ve started to understand that God does love me, and it’s changed my life! Now I get it I just want to shout it from the roof tops, which is why I’ve braved it and decided to write a blog on it. So if you struggle to believe God loves you, please keep reading, because when you get it, it really does change your life!

Firstly it’s important you know where that little voice in the back of your head saying ‘God doesn’t love you!’ comes from, it’s the enemy, the devil, and he wants to do all he can to destroy your relationship with God. But it’s also important that you realise that you have God on your side, who really is greater, stronger and wiser! So what do we do when those thoughts come about? Well it can be very easy to just believe it, give in and give up, but believe me, that helps no one! Instead, pray! That can seem very obvious, but it’s not always that easy, for months I would give in and give up but when I started praying regularly that God would help me to understand his love, he did! The more time is spent with God and the more I got to know him, the more I started to understand that he loved me. Think about it this way, in all relationships it takes a while to truly trust the other person, and believe that there love is genuine, and without spending time with them, how are you going to believe this? It’s the same with God, you can listen to all the preaches and songs telling you that God loves you, but until you start spending time with him yourself, it’s likely that it will just go over your head and that’s when those thoughts can start creeping in. Also spending time with God can strengthen our foundations, and when the devil does attack us, we are more confident to go to God and fight, instead of feeling like we can’t go to him.

Like any battle, you need weapons, prayer can be a very powerful weapon, another one that we sometimes forget about is the bible. The bible is a brilliant source that God lovingly created for us to get to know him better, so use it! Just like praying helps to understand Gods love more, so does the bible, and a lot of the time the answers to our prayers can be found in the bible. So how do we use the bible as a weapon against the devil? Well like I already said the thoughts that God doesn’t love you comes from the devil, but there are loads of verses in the bible that say the opposite, these verses are the weapons I’m talking about! Reading verses about Gods love for me regularly have really helped me to believe it, and when those thoughts do come creeping back instead of listening to them and believing them I can go back to these verses and use them as weapons against those thoughts. This is why it is really important to know some verses, so you can fight!