There are no people unworthy of love.
15 This is a true saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. 16 But for this reason I received mercy, so that Jesus Christ in me first might show all long-suffering, as an example to those who will believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Tim 1:15-16).
My mother works in a group of volunteers. Together they visit local prisons and testify about God. One day I decided to join them. When we met with the prisoners, one of them said that he was sure that God no longer needed someone like him. Then one of the volunteers read 1 Tim. 1:15-16 and spoke about God's mercy and forgiveness of even the worst sinners. That day the prisoner accepted Jesus.
No matter what grave sins a person has committed in his life, God's love can reach his heart. Even a drug dealer. Even a killer. The worst person your imagination can create can receive God's forgiveness if he humbly asks for it.
There is no person in the world who is “no longer needed” by God. There are only those who have not accepted His love.
Brian
Let's talk about you.
1. Remember a person (from school, university, work, etc.) who does wrong. Imagine God looking this person in the eyes and saying, “I forgive you.” Imagine yourself doing the same.
2. Write down today's verses and memorize them. Perhaps you will meet someone who desperately needs them.
3. Thank God for forgiving you and ask for His help in forgiving others.
God loves us - He teaches us
Another manifestation of God’s love is teaching and correction. I think most of you will agree that although these two processes may sometimes not be so pleasant, they are only carried out by those who love us, and, provided they are carried out sincerely, it is proof of their love for us. Imagine a family in which parents do not correct their children. How can children understand that one or another of their actions is not the best? If, for example, a child wants to take dangerous medicine from the table, what should his parents do if they love him? Tell him that it is harmful for him, that is, correct the child. You can, of course, give him the freedom to do as he pleases. However, I don't think many of us would call it love. So, another area of God's love is teaching and correction, and God, as a loving Father, shows His love for us by correcting and teaching us. Let's look at Hebrews 12:
Hebrews 12:6 "For the Lord disciplines whomever he loves..."
Like our earthly parents, the Lord punishes us. And this punishment is most often painful. But why does He do this? Because He doesn't like us? NO. If He didn't like us, He would never punish us or correct us. Parents who don't love their children leave them to their own devices, not caring whether what they do is right or wrong. But our Father LOVES us, and therefore He disciplines, teaches and corrects us.
He knows your name.
Now this is what the Lord says, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are my. (Isaiah 43:1)
I would like to share this verse with my friends so they know how important it is to God. God is not just some powerful ruler who looks at the earth and sees a bunch of nameless individuals scurrying around. God knows every person by name.
God knows about our sorrows and joys. He created each of us uniquely, and He wants to communicate with each of us personally.
When I think of God this way, I know that He loves me and will never leave me. And best of all, He called me to Himself and promised me eternal life.
Kate
Let's talk about you.
1. How many people (at school, university, work, etc.) do you know by name? How do you feel when someone calls your name? Why is it important that God knows the name of each of us?
2. Write Isaiah 43:1, replacing “Jacob” and “Israel” with your name. Did your understanding of this verse change when you imagined God speaking to you personally?
3. Praise God for creating you and loving you.
God loves us - He made us His children
Another area in which God has shown His love for us is described in 1 John 3:1-2:
1 John 3:1-2 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. The world does not know us because it has not known Him. Beloved! We are now children of God..."
According to this passage, the Lord loved us so much that when we believed in Jesus Christ, He made us His children. So, if we wonder why God made us His children, the answer is: because He loved us. You know that people often try to establish good relationships with those who have at least some power, but here God, who has not just some, but ALL the power in the world, gives all people the opportunity to become his children. When someone believes in Jesus Christ, they become a son or daughter of God (see Galatians 3:26). But why? The reason is the same – the Lord’s great love for us. And let's look again at Romans 5:5:
Romans 5:5 “For the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
We have already learned that when we believe, we become children of God, and that this is possible because of God's great love for us. Here in Romans 5:5 we see the same thing: The Lord, out of His love, gave us the holy spirit. If we need proof of His love for us, this is it. Just as our earthly parents gave us blood that nourishes our bodies, and this is proof that we are their children, so God, when we believe in Jesus Christ, gives us what He Himself is, that is, the spirit. And what does the above verse tell us about this? He tells us that this is a sign of the love that God has for us. God loves us, and another proof of this is the holy spirit that is given to us when we believe in Jesus Christ.
He won't leave you.
35 Who will separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? as it is written: 36 “For Your sake we are killed every day; we are counted as sheep doomed to the slaughter.” 37 But we overcome all these things through the power of Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, neither the present nor the future, 39 nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord ours. (Rom 8:35-39).
I've had a difficult month. Mentally, I felt just terrible. Even when I spent time with friends, I felt like I was all alone and no one cared about me. In the mornings I literally forced myself to get out of bed.
I don't know how it happened, but I completely forgot Romans 8:35-39. I desperately needed someone to tell me: “You are mistaken in thinking that you are all alone, that no one cares about you. God is near. You are important to Him." God loves me and nothing can change that.
God must really care about us if there is nothing in the world that “can separate us from the love” of Him. Knowing this, I feel empowered to overcome any adversity. He is with me when life is easy and pleasant. He is with me both in joy and in sorrow.
Sarah
Let's talk about you.
1. How do you feel when you realize that you are loved?
2. Think about a person who is currently struggling and needs love and support. Think about what you can do for this person to encourage him.
3. Thank God for His unfailing love.
"God loves you!" - “What’s the point?”
Estimated reading time: less than a minute.
One of the deepest misunderstandings between the Church and the world—and worldly thinking can penetrate into the Church—is related to the misunderstanding of what unconditional love is. Love is not for something - but in spite of everything. “This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)” Love that extends to people who are absolutely bad and unworthy, hostile and embittered, to blasphemers and crucifiers. “For we too were once foolish, disobedient, erring, slaves of lusts and various pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, we were vile, we hated one another. But when the grace and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus .3:3-6)" God loves and saves absolutely worthless people - this shocking idea appears already in the Old Testament, and is persistently proclaimed in the New. God cannot stop loving you. This is completely out of the question. “Will a woman forget her suckling child, so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb? but even if she forgot, I will not forget you. (Is. 49:15)"
In the world, love must be earned, it must be achieved, and it is easy to lose. To be in demand, you must be a competitive product on the market. There is not enough love for everyone, and only the smart, beautiful, successful, and socially approved will get it. To be unsuccessful in meeting all these standards is to be unloved, unwanted, excluded, thrown out, a third-class person - if a person at all. If you don't fulfill the expectations of others, no one needs you. Go kill yourself with a broom, you freak.
This gives rise to a pressing request: tell us that we are good. That everything is fine with us, that we, in general, pass the standard, we live correctly. Hence the furious demands for the normalization of sin - so that no one just stops sinning, but also does not dare to say out loud that sin is sin. You can preach about the love of God. But about sin - no.
There have been attempts to meet such demands - and in the Protestant world there are already plenty of communities that have adopted a policy of “inclusivity”, in Russian “all-acceptance”, so that no one would be offended by convictions of sin or demands to change their way of life. The other day I read about a minister of the American Episcopal Church who preached a liberal gospel, in which there were no demands and accusations, but only consolation - “God-loves-you, etc.,” as he himself formulated it. Then he began to notice that this did not work - people did not change, and his own life was in great disarray. Thoughtful, he accepted traditional views on sin and salvation - and his life changed and the community began to grow. Indeed, inclusive, open, liberal evangelism does not work. Statistically, liberal communities die, the more open and inclusive they are, the faster.
But why? They have become so good, they don’t say anything unpleasant to anyone, they open their arms to everyone, they follow modern trends, they have renounced everything for which the liberal press could scold them, they give people exactly what they want - why do people leave them? ?
Because love that does not convict sin does not save. Salvation is not exclusively an otherworldly reality; this is a reality that people enter (or refuse to enter) already here and now. And it manifests itself in a change in life. The Holy Apostle Paul, listing the sins that separate a person from the Kingdom of God, adds at the end: “and such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:11)"
Such beneficial change is possible when a person believes that his previous life is deeply wrong - and must be left in the past. It involves a painful moment of admitting that I am not okay. God loves you - and that's why he wants to lead you out of the pit of destruction into which you have driven yourself. Your paths are wrong, and God, in His mercy, wants to lead you onto completely different paths.
This gospel causes strong irritation: “Are our ways wrong? Is it enough for us to drink and fornicate? But we are extremely bitter and offended that you condemn our ways! Where is your love, since you make us feel so bitter and insulting?” Therefore, the desire to remove this moment - and not annoy anyone - is understandable. But the trouble is that such evangelism, purified of irritating moments, does not save. "God loves you!" - “What’s the point?”
Conviction of sin and instruction in righteousness in the Christian tradition is perceived as a manifestation of love and care - in the world as a manifestation of rejection (you are bad! substandard! to the trash heap!) and arrogance (we, unlike you, are of standard, and we know how to!). And the difference between these two perceptions is the unconditional love of God; I can be a sinner, guilty and spoiled, and it’s terrible, and it’s intolerable, and something urgently needs to be done about it - but God still loves me, and I’m still precious in His eyes, so precious that Christ is for me died, God can and wants to save me from my guilt and corruption. I can acknowledge the reality of my guilt and corruption without falling into self-hatred and despair, precisely because I am confident that God unfailingly loves me, always seeks to forgive and will save me with infinite patience.
The gospel gospel, which saves, which changes lives, which makes us completely new people, speaks of both sin and salvation. Your ways are wrong, and unless you change them you will perish; but you can repent and be saved, you have hope - “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” (John 3:16)
