March 3, 2025
HOW MUCH HE LOVES US
Love is such a powerful tool. So many people do not realize how much power Love holds, none of us will ever understand how very much Love the Lord has for us...we know He loves us, but our human minds are not able to comprehend how much...The Bible says that God is the very nature of Love, He has showed us His love by sending His own son into the world to die for our sins. We share His nature because we are born of Him and because we have shared in this incredible Love ,we who have experienced His love, forgiveness and help are under obligation to help others even at great personal cost sometimes. If we love one another God continues to dwell in us and His Love is perfected in us.
I was thinking about the Lord's Love for us last night during meditation, I asked Him to reveal to me an example in the Bible that I could use to share with you today. He led me to the book of Jonah. Jonah fled when The Lord's word cam upon him, but the Lord was merciful and when the sailors threw him overboard for causing them to deal with the Lord's wrath, the Lord spared him by sending a "great fish" to swallow him and keep him...While in the fishes belly Jonah realized He had no choice in the matter so he
cried out to God, the same God he ran away from when called on to do the Lord's works and prayed for
deliverance. The Lord heard his cry from the belly of the fish and he caused the great fish to vomit him onto land. Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again and commanded him to go into Nineveh and deliver His message, the Lord was about to pass judgment on the great city because of their sin and corrupt way of living...when the king heard this he immediately ordered everyone to fast,
repent and he himself humbled himself by putting on sack cloth and sitting in the dust, the city cried out to God for forgiveness...This book in the Old testament is a wonderful reflection of God's love for us...he saw their sincere
repentance and cry for forgiveness and he changed His mind and forgave them...The Lord loves us so very much that he withheld his
judgment and gave them another chance. Now, Jonah was not happy about this... all his trouble and God didn't do to the City as he had threatened and not even people of Israel they were an enemy of Israel. He was angry with the Lord...angry that He would have compassion on an enemy of Israel he felt the Lord's compassion was deserved by only the Israelites and not Gentile's...and He let God know about his feelings. He was so angry that he asked the Lord to take away his life...The Lord asked Him "Have you any right to be angry?" Jonah left the city and went and made himself a shelter but it was not good enough to keep the hot sun off of him, so the lord provided a vine that gave him complete shelter from the sun and Jonah was happy about this, but at dawn the next day he provided a worm which ate through the vine and when the scorching sun rose it withered. Jonah really wanted to die then..He told the Lord it would be better for him to die. The Lord then asked Jonah "Have you any right to be angry about the vine?" Jonah said "I do, I am angry enough to want to die" Then the Lord said..."You have been concerned about this vine, yet you did not tend to it or make it grow, it sprang up over night and died overnight, But Nineveh has over 120,000 people that do not know their left hand from their right hand...should I not be concerned about that great city?
These passages show God's compassion for even the most wicked of all people ...He even
graciously increased the comfort of His stubbornly defiant prophet. So many times we get angry with God
because he does not come through the way we want Him to when we want Him too...then when we are finished with our temper tantrum we feel guilt and some of us feel so bad we are afraid to turn back to Him....God understands that you are human... and He will never forsake you, He loves you and has so much compassion for what you are going through, He knows that what you are going through is the only way to give you what is best for you...He loves us when we are angry, or when we are stubborn. He never gives up on us no matter what.
If you get a chance this weekend, read the book of Jonah. For those of us that feel unloved ESPECIALLY on the weekends this is a good read that is sure to bring you closer to The Lord and make you understand just a little bit better ho very much he loves you.
Until we meet again...Keep on Keeping on!!!