

31 Days of Love Letters: Searching Scripture for How God Loves

By Christine Hoover

Copyright 2012 Christine Hoover

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**TABLE OF CONTENTS:**

Introduction: Looking for Love

Day 1: Intimate Love {Proverbs}

Day 2: First Love {1 John}

Day 3: Bridegroom Love {John}

Day 4: Covenant Love {1 Kings}

Day 5: Love That Disciplines {Lamentations}

Day 6: God's Love Language {1 Peter}

Day 7: Redeeming Love {Ruth}

Day 8: Jealous Love {Jeremiah}

Day 9: Heroic Love {2 Thessalonians}

Day 10: Complete Love {Colossians}

Day 11: Restorative Love {Nehemiah}

Day 12: Forgiving Love {2 Samuel}

Day 13: Sacrificial Love {Hebrews}

Day 14: Pursuing Love {Matthew}

Day 15: Protective Love {Obadiah}

Day 16: Everlasting Love {Habakkuk}

Day 17: Approving Love {1 Chronicles}

Day 18: Satisfying Love {Ecclesiastes}

Day 19: Extravagant Love {Revelation}

Day 20: Attentive Love {2 Chronicles}

Day 21: Loving-kindness {Psalms}

Day 22: Unfailing Love {Esther}

Day 23: Love That Cannot Be Demanded {Job}

Day 24: Love in Return {Leviticus}

Day 25: Resourceful Love {1 Thessalonians}

Day 26: Likes and Dislikes {Mark}

Day 27: Inspiring Love {Ezra}

Day 28: Creative Love {1 Corinthians}

Day 29: A Love to Remember {Exodus}

Day 30: Impartial Love {James}

Day 31: Compelling Love {Philemon}

Conclusion: Love Always
Introduction: Looking for Love

This past year has been one long barren winter.

Spring birthed the cherry blossoms lining the city's main thoroughfare, summer delivered a blanket of humidity, fall dazzled with oranges and yellows and ambers, but still, winter remained. A heart in winter—my heart—knows well the thin, bare tree limbs, the snow-capped silence, the bitter cold, the longing for new life.

I am frozen, pleading in prayer, waiting and watching for a beloved friend. The story is hers to tell, but the grieved, winter heart is mine. My friend is gone, hearts are breaking, and only questions remain.

Is this an endless winter?

Has God been defeated?

Is He strong enough to change a heart?

Is He strong enough to change my heart?

Because mine is just as needy as hers. I need winter to thaw into spring. I need hope and restoration, true and beautiful. As the prodigal's brother, I need the Father's heart. Most of all, I need a renewed picture of love. Not fleeting, shifting, romantic love, but love that withstands the burdens and pressures and failings and needs of the entire world. Love that holds up. Perfect Love, unadulterated by a limited human perspective.

There is only one Love like this.

_Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so_.

This is the Love I need.

I know the words by heart, having sung it since childhood. I know about God. Certainly, I can list His attributes and state facts about how He acts —all the things I know I should believe about Him. But do I know Him? Do I even know the simple truths of my childhood?

_Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so_.

What is this love? How does this love act? How does this love respond? How is this love expressed? How is this love experienced? Do I know this Person, Jesus, who thinks, wills, feels, and acts love toward the world, toward me?

I need to know. Desperately and passionately, I need to know. My heart cries out for God's deep and abiding love to come and transition my heart from winter to spring.

I imagine you do, too. I imagine that you know about God, and you can roughly paraphrase the main points of Scripture and/or theology. I imagine that you are a dutiful person, trying to live life right. You take your friends meals when they have babies, and you make sure your kids have clean socks. You go to church, you pay your bills, and you give to the needy at Christmas. A few times a week, you sit down to read your Bible because you know it's good for you, but you often desire more out of that time. Late at night, when you can't sleep, you wonder if you're just going through the motions, if there is any of the promised abundance in all this rote, mundane, religious life. Mostly, you struggle to relate to God. You wonder if He truly loves you, if you are good enough for Him, or if you're doing enough for Him. More than anything in all the world, you long to know God, have a deep relationship with Him, and comprehend His approval.

I know you.

I know you because I know me.

I know that I have assumed way too much about Him without truly trying to know Him. I have made the primary mode of knowing Him—the Bible—a chore and an obligation, a dry, shallow, purposeless endeavor. Yet I have endured on, meandering through a series of unconnected stories, occasionally checking in with the experts on the meaning of this or that. I have kept things safe, assuming God is far off and unapproachable rather than affectionate, gentle, or actively at work in every corner of my life.

And I want out. Rather, I want God out—out of the religious, dutiful cage I have assumed for Him.

So I'm going on an exploration, and I want you to join me.

A.W. Tozer, in _The Pursuit of God_ , describes the map we will use for our exploration:

_For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers [or readers] find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard [or read] the truth._ _The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God_ _, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts._

With only the Bible as our guide, we will search for how God loves. Because sometimes I want to erase everything I know about God that I learned from church, other Christians, Christian culture, culture in general, movies, songs, and t-shirts. I want to fill that blank slate with rich biblical truth, with what is actually in the Bible and what it actually says about God. I fear that I am too often unaware of how He actually is.

Do you wonder how God really is too? Do you read books filled with definitive statements about God and wonder if He is really like that? We should. Gary Ezzo says, "Idolatry is defined as claiming that God is something that He is not or by pronouncing that something is God that is not." We must never be idolaters, so we must cautiously step forward in our search for God. We must test everything we think, read, and hear next to the standard of Scripture. In the end, I believe if we hold to that standard and are honest about what Scripture says, we can gain an accurate and truthful picture of the Person of God and we can relate to Him.

In the following pages, we will search for facets of God's love in 31 different books of the Bible. I will guide the exploration with a short devotional, as well as give verses to read and responses to consider. It is my hope that we will learn that:

  * God loves.

  * God loves personally.

  * God's love is plastered all over the Bible, even in the little-read or little-understood parts.

  * Although mysterious, God's love is not a complete mystery. It is available to everyone who seeks Him.

As we explore the Bible, book-by-book, we are not looking for knowledge or special insight or anything else other than God Himself. We are looking for the Person of God. We are looking for how He loves so that we can love like Him. We are looking to know Him. Because we can! Jeremiah 29:12–13 says, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

As we read, we will ask, "What does this tell me about God and who He is?" We will look for clues about His character, His likes, His dislikes, His way of acting. We won't look for rules, principles, or bullet points, but for the living, feeling, thinking, acting Person of God. I am anticipating that the mute, bleak, boring, incomprehensible Bible we plod through each day will suddenly explode with color, life, meaning, and even deeper wells to explore. I am also expecting God to reveal Himself to be One with dimension and complexity and beauty and power and gentleness. And, most of all, One who loves.

It is not humanly possible to describe the fullness, the out-working, and the complexities of God's love because His love is so completely unlike the imperfect love that we share with one another. I certainly do not think that I will be able to sum up the love of God in this book or even create a simplified working definition.

But I believe that God's love (and anything about Him, for that matter) has facets, much like a skyscraper. If we try to look at it as a whole, it is difficult to take it all in or to see the details that make it what it is. But if we explore the details, go floor to floor, and look at the building from various angles, we piece together an accurate picture of the skyscraper. We _know_ the skyscraper.

As we explore, our eyes must remain on Him. His love says nothing about us—that we are somehow loveable or worthy—but everything about the graciousness of our God. He loved us when we were still far off, when we despised and rejected Him. He loves with agape love, a love that is given without any expectation of return. We search for Him and for His love so that we might know Him, but also so that we might respond in grateful worship.

A love in return.

A life in response.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

May it be so.

Day 1: Intimate Love

The heart knows its own bitterness,

And a stranger does not share its joy.

Proverbs 14:10

Funny that we should start here today.

Yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of one of the most difficult years I have experienced thus far. On October 16, 2006, my oldest son was diagnosed with autism. That word—autism—spoken over my son and over my life on that day sent me into a yearlong spiral of grief and confusion. Today, our first day in a search for God's love, has us in Proverbs, the source of a simple and important truth I learned in that grief-filled year. How appropriate, I thought, that the Lord would remind me of it today. I knew instantly that, with the combination of the anniversary and the Love Letter chosen for today, God was reminding me of His provision and, of course, His love.

One of the most difficult aspects of navigating and processing my son's autism diagnosis was being around typical kids. I noticed everything: the way they talked to other kids, the way they hugged their mothers, the way they tied their own shoes, even their interests and curiosities. In those months, I left every play date, church event, or trip to Chick-fil-a obsessing about what I didn't have and what my son didn't do. On each car ride home, my son sat silent and staring in the back seat while I sobbed and pleaded with God for a miracle. I wanted a kid who actually interacted once in a while, not one who counted storage units or intently searched for manhole covers.

Eventually, the sadness and grief developed into bitterness. Sitting at the playground, watching moms I didn't know push their kids on the swings, I internally shot my bitter arrows directly into their hearts. Why did they have it easy? Why did I have a child with a disability? I envied the sweet, affectionate interactions they enjoyed with their children and the ease of their mini-vanned, suburban lives.

Worse, I shot my bitter arrows at friends and family, who did nothing but show me love and support. It did not matter what they said or did to encourage me. It was never right. It was never enough. Because nothing they said could erase my pain or alter my circumstances. I felt utterly and completely alone, like I was the only person on the planet who was going through a difficult time. Certainly, no one could step into my shoes or know exactly how I felt. Or so I thought.

And so the bitter root grew wildly out of control, resulting in my own isolation and compounded grief.

Doesn't this happen all the time? Sometimes it is caused by really hard stuff, like the death of a child, cancer, infertility, family issues, unemployment, marital discord, or the death of a dream. Other times it is caused by less-difficult stuff like frustration over external appearances, work struggles, or stress.

We desperately want things that we don't have.

We believe that no one can relate.

We whine and weep and throw ourselves, tantrum-like, on the floor.

And we feel completely and utterly alone. Who can understand our grief? Who can know our pain?

We feel that we would be validated or that the pain might ease if someone just understood us. So we shoot our bitter arrows while we fruitlessly wait for someone to come along who understands.

In the midst of that year, on a day when I had picked myself up off the floor after a massive pity party, God walloped me in the heart with Proverbs 14:10: "The heart knows its own bitterness. And a stranger does not share its joy."

I know, it's kind of a weird verse, but it basically says that there are feelings we have, both joyful and sorrowful, that ultimately cannot be understood by another person. Sometimes we can't even express how we feel to others, and sometimes even when we try, when we lay it all out bare, we still aren't fully understood. There are limits to human love, and if we rely solely on human love for our comfort, we grow bitter and hard and distant from others in our disappointment. Like I did.

Thankfully and incredibly, God loves differently. He is not hindered or limited in His understanding or love. He loves us intimately. All those feelings we feel about our life situation? All those thoughts we wrestle with? All those struggles to comprehend and navigate our difficulties? He knows them even more than we can articulate them to others, much less to ourselves.

St. Augustine describes God as being "closer to me than I am to myself." Because He knows us intimately, He also comforts us that intimately. He fully enters our pain because, unlike most humans, He can fully handle its weight, emotion, and complexity. We can go to Him and be understood. And that is when our pain is eased. From Him, we gather strength to face another day. Through Him, we see others with His eyes and we realize that everyone has pain. In Him, peace finds a dwelling place in our souls.

I don't know what you face today, but it is probably something specific to you and your life. Whether circumstances big or small, I hope you enjoy the comfort of godly, loving friends and family. But when they aren't enough—because they never will be—I hope you will run to the One who loves you with an intimate love.

Our Responses:

Run to Him, not just to others.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

Psalm 20:7

**Trust His heart, not our own**.

Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."

Jeremiah 17:5–10
Day 2: First Love

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

We love Him because He first loved us.

This is the verse of my life.

It boils down the essence of the gospel into eight little words, eight little words that changed the course of history and changed the course of my history. This verse explains life, gives life, and is the goal of my life. It continues to inform and transform my heart as I wrestle with and grasp its ideas.

Eight little words about love—His love—boil further down to one: first.

_He_ first loved us.

He _first_.

He first _loved_.

He first loved _us_.

I had this all so terribly wrong for so terribly long that it makes me want to weep. Just eight words—that's all I needed to get right—yet I colossally failed. I took those eight words, jumbled them up, and formed them into a nice, tidy formula in my head lacking any of the words' original meaning: Love God and then He will love you back.

This is a formula for disaster.

Somehow, it seemed an endless to-do list had been delivered first-class to my doorstep the second I recited the sinner's prayer.

Do not smoke.

Do not chew.

_Do not go with those who do_.

If there is anything I'm good at, it's to-do lists. I make to-do lists for my to-do lists. A tingling feeling goes up my spine when I check-off a completed task. I even add things to my to-do lists that I have already accomplished solely for the jolt of pleasure I get when I put a delightful little checkmark next to a task.

I have discovered, however, that to-do lists and love do not go together. They are oil and water. After being a Christian for a few years, God's to-do list kept growing like an unstoppable cancer. I imagined Him standing over me with a clipboard filled with an ever-expanding list of expectations. (Things are always more official seeming when a clipboard is involved.) "Read the Bible" became "Read the Bible everyday" and then "Read the Bible every day for 30 minutes before school or else." I just knew if I could check off every item on the to-do list, I would be the model Christian, and God would pat me on the back, winking like jolly old Santa Claus as He whispered, "I'm so glad you're on my team." He would love me, really love me.

The formula—so tidy and pretty and clipboard official—didn't work.

Because I tried to love Him first.

I got tired and worn out pretty quickly, but kept trying. I was like a prisoner sitting in a jail cell with the door swung wide open, refusing to leave because I was still working on getting released based on my good behavior.

I tried to attain His love. It is a weird and useless endeavor trying to attain something you already have. By definition, love is a gift. It can never be forced or demanded or earned. We cannot attain love because God is love and we cannot attain God. His love is gifted to us. Our job is to receive it, devour it, enjoy it, and delight in it. When we receive it, we put down our checklist of good works and are soothed in our souls, to the very core of who we are. And then we exclaim "Aha!" in complete understanding, pick up the good works God has made us for, and carry on with a completely different motivation for those good works.

We are wanted.

We belong.

We are family members.

Fear no longer motivates us, because fear has been driven out by the overwhelming gift of God's love. We become motivated by love, that we might love Him in response for the lavish love He has bestowed upon us. Certainly, we know our unworthiness of such a love, but we understand our unworthiness without any sense of fear. We know it, and it makes us glad because, like a diamond against a mute background, our unworthiness makes His love explode with more clarity.

When we know His love is first, that He loved us before we could do anything to earn it, our lives become a response of love. Instinctively, we fulfill the greatest commandments—to love God and to love others.

We love because He first loved us.

Our Responses:

Put down the checklist.

Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

John 6:28–29

**By the Spirit, love**.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

Galatians 5:5–6
Day 3: Bridegroom Love

In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

John 14:2-3

Because my husband, Kyle, is a pastor and officiates many weddings, I get to tag along to many rehearsal dinners, wedding ceremonies, and receptions. I love that I get to be a part of a couple's best day, admire blushing brides, offer first congratulations to some lucky grooms, and—let's face it—eat my fair share of wedding cake.

Mostly, I love hearing my husband speak words of hard-won wisdom over the bride and groom. As I listen, I fidget with the wedding band on my ring finger, remembering when we were the ones speaking vows to one another. In my heart, I silently affirm them again.

I think about the moment the doors at the back of the church flew open. I stepped into the sanctuary on the arm of my dad, and my eyes searched for Kyle's. As soon as I found him, my step quickened to get to him, my bridegroom.

Now, at each wedding, I still look for the groom. When the bride enters in a dazzling array of white and lace, I stand on tiptoe to peek at him. I watch his face fill with uncontainable joy as he watches his bride approach. _This beauty is mine_ , he seems to say. There is unabashed intimacy between them as they meet together and join hands, preparing to join lives.

Weddings are solemn moments of commitment and joyous celebrations at the same time. And the cake is usually really, really good. But our modern celebrations are mute compared to the engagement period and weddings that occurred in biblical times.

Then, everything started with a betrothal period. When the bride and bridegroom became betrothed, unlike our engagements today, it was a binding commitment. But they did not yet move-in together or consummate the relationship. The bride remained at her parents' home while the bridegroom prepared a home where they would live together. Traditionally, he would spend several months building an addition onto his father's house. The bride, not sure when her bridegroom would come for her, prepared herself for him and waited, always at the ready. Finally, when the preparations were completed, the bridegroom would start for his bride. As he approached her parents' house, their friends and other townspeople announced his coming by shouting, "The bridegroom is coming! The bridegroom is coming!" The bride, hearing the shouts, knew her day had come. They would soon be married and off to the wedding supper, a celebration that traditionally lasted for days.

I can just imagine the fanfare. Surely everyone in the village stood on tiptoe, looking for the bridegroom and searching his face as he passed on the way to claim his bride. The men must have smiled, patting him on the back. The women, remembering their own wedding days, must have dabbed away tears of joy as he walked by.

In John 14, Jesus implies that He is a Bridegroom:

In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

He is not the modern bridegroom who shows up at the church 30 minutes before the ceremony wearing a rented polyester suit and a nervous grin. He is the Jewish bridegroom, committed to His bride and preparing to claim her.

Though our modern eyes miss the implication in John 14, His audience would have understood immediately. As they listened, fidgeting with the wedding bands on their fingers, they would have remembered their own wedding days, filled with unabashed intimacy and promise fulfilled.

Might they have been confused? Jesus—the living, breathing, walking, talking, touchable God—a Bridegroom? Could a pure God truly delight in taking a once-promiscuous people as His own bride?

Might He love with that kind of love?

_Yes_ , Jesus said, in calling Himself a Bridegroom, I do.

And then He proved it. He initiated the betrothal at His death, staking His claim on us, and making a binding commitment to us.

He went away to His Father's house to prepare a home for us.

One day, one glorious day, He will come for us. The trumpets, taking the place of the shouting villagers, will announce His approach: _The Bridegroom is coming! The Bridegroom is coming!_

We, His bride, will stand on tiptoe, looking for His face, searching for the joy we are sure to find.

Our Response:

Be the bride, waiting expectantly.

God's kingdom is like ten young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn't show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep. In the middle of the night someone yelled out, "He's here! The bridegroom's here! Go out and greet him!"

The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, "Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil."

They answered, "There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own."

They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked.

Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, "Master, we're here. Let us in."

He answered, "Do I know you? I don't think I know you."

So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive.

Matthew 25:1–13, MSG
Day 4: Covenant Love

_As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king's house and all that Solomon desired to build, the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the LORD said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time._ _And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, "You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel." But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, "Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?" Then they will say, "Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them."_

1 Kings 9:1–9

A few years ago, Kyle and I flew across the world into a beautiful, fascinating Eastern culture overflowing with people, bicycles, and death-defying taxicabs. Our hosts escorted us around their city, taking us to places that might help us grasp the city's physical and spiritual environment.

The most memorable stop on our tour was a religious temple where idols were worshipped. As we stepped across the threshold into the courtyard of the temple, the smell of incense immediately washed over us. Quietly, we entered the building and walked room-to-room, observing the religious symbols and rituals associated with them. Each building and sectioned-off room held a large idol seated behind an altar. Symbols, decorations, flowers, and offerings surrounded each statue. Surprisingly, the offerings were often big plates of fruit for the statues to eat.

On the floor in the corner of the biggest building, we saw several idols that had been removed from their pedestals. Each one was wrapped, as if needing repair or replacement. As I raised my camera to snap a picture, I was struck by the image in front of me. A god in need of repair. A god who never actually receives offerings. A god who never speaks. A god with no heart, no will, no emotion. A god forever silent, forever cold, forever weak and incapable. A god made by human hands, yet worshipped and prayed to and hoped in. An unworthy god.

In that moment, hopelessness overtook me. I wondered about the men serving food to the idols. When the food was not eaten each day, did they not wonder about their gods? I imagined the men shirking off into the night, disappointed yet again. Before their gods, they say with their hearts, "We are your people. Here we are to serve you." And their gods don't offer anything in return. They take, but never give.

These gods and these worshippers are not just a modern concept or practice. First Kings—the book we're exploring today—describes God's man, Elijah, refuting this same kind of idol worship:

Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal {a false god}, "Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it." So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, "O Baal, hear us!" But there was no voice; no one answered.

_They leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they cried aloud, and cut themselves as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when mid-day was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice._ _But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention._ (I Kings 18:25–29)

After Elijah challenges the idol worshippers, he then calls on his God, our God:

_Elijah the prophet came near and said... "Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to you again." Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed (his) burnt sacrifice._ (1 Kings 18:36–38)

This is the difference between our God and other so-called gods: false gods never love back, but God relates with and loves His worshippers. It is the message of 1 Kings and it is the message of the entire Bible—that God hears and God speaks. God hears His people and acts out of His covenant love for them.

What is covenant love? When God offers a covenant in Scripture, essentially He is offering Himself. He is saying, with unbreakable, unchangeable words, "I will be your God and you will be my people." He offers His protection, His care, His promises, His leadership, and, most of all, His love.

Interestingly enough, God often couples His declaration of covenant love with a warning to stay away from false gods. His covenant love informs His jealous love and His disciplining love, facets of His love that we will explore on future days. His covenant love, then, seems to indicate He wants to be loved in return. He doesn't need our love or need us to feed His ego, but He calls us to obedience because He knows that when we follow His ways, we will experience Him fully. Our obedience is how we'll best know Him and the extent of His covenant love toward us.

Ultimately, God offers us covenant love and desires our undivided affection because He knows what is best for us. He is best for us. When we turn to worthless idols that cannot speak, satisfy, or advocate for us, we turn away from Love. However, when we look to God alone, we know the peace and protection of the living Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Our obedience says to Him: We will not insult your declaration of love by offering ourselves to useless, silent gods. Other gods can't do what You can do.

Our Response:

Keep ourselves from idols.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

1 John 5:20–21
Day 5: Love that Disciplines

_{Jerusalem's] adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper;_ _For the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions._ _Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed_.

Lamentations 1:5–6

Today, we're looking for love in Lamentations.

I must admit that I had to look in the table of contents of my Bible to find Lamentations. Of course, I've heard it's in there somewhere, but I never made it far enough in my read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan to confirm its existence. It is not a book that I read often (ever?), and it is certainly not the first place I turn for an encouraging ditty on how God loves.

There is a reason that we don't often read the prophetic books, like Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Malachi. They are difficult to understand, but more than that, they are so full of destruction and suffering that we struggle to see God's grace and love in the midst of it all. We much prefer the joy of Philippians or the familiar love passage of First Corinthians, or anything that feeds our idea of God as a sweet, cuddly teddy bear in the sky.

Undoubtedly, Lamentations is a book about suffering, death, destruction, and grief. Written by the prophet Jeremiah, its pages hold jarring images of starvation, cannibalism, and desolation. Jeremiah laments and grieves the vile sins of Judah that have resulted in a siege of beloved Jerusalem and the exile of his people.

I know this lament well. As I mentioned before, a dear friend of mine was carried off into exile this past year because of her sin. She is still there and I grieve for her and for our broken relationship every day. Like Jeremiah, tears come easily over sin's destruction. It hangs heavy. Jeremiah's lament voices my own questions: Where is God? When will He restore? Will His love not pursue now? How can His love allow pain and destruction to continue?

The book of Lamentations shows us a facet of God's love that we don't really like, that we don't want to label as love:

(Jerusalem's) adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; For the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed. (Jeremiah 1:5–6)

From love, God disciplines His children. And, oh, how we buck it.

As parents, we instruct, train, and correct our children because we love them and want the best for them. If we don't discipline, it's often because we love ourselves more than our children. We don't want to make the sacrifices that consistent, purposeful discipline requires. But God is not a bad parent. His parenting is never lazy, inconsistent, or thoughtless. His approach is measured. He teaches, redirects, imparts consequences, molds, and responds when His children stray from what is right and good. God disciplines us because He loves us. We actually should be concerned if He doesn't.

For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12)

He is the ideal disciplinarian, motivated by love, never by harsh anger. His discipline is never unreasonable or unjustified. He does not delight in letting us crash and burn for a time, just as the Father did not delight in turning away from His Son on the cross.

Instead, His discipline shows that He is engaged in our lives, that He has not abandoned us to find our way alone. He will not let us go forever to other lovers, because He knows that their promised love is deceptive and unsatisfying, as we discovered in 1 Kings. However, for a time, He will let us make that discovery for ourselves, that:

The joy of our heart has ceased;

Our dance has turned into mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this our heart is faint.

(Lamentations 5:15–17)

When we trust His love in the midst of discipline, we return to Him. Like the prodigal son's father, He sees us coming from far off and celebrates our return. When we allow His discipline to fulfill its purposes in us, He restores us, much to our profit:

He disciplines for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

Our Response:

Yield to His discipline.

Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.

Proverbs 13:18
Day 6: God's Love Language

_Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God_.

1 Peter 1:18–21 (MSG)

I must admit that one of my primary love languages is receiving gifts, although when I say it out loud I always feel a little less spiritual and profound than the Quality Time or Words of Affirmation people.

But gifts, oh how I love thee. Big or small, it doesn't matter. Wrapped or not, makes no difference. Just something to say "I thought of you," or "This reminded me of you." A little gift at the right time speaks love to my heart. Like a well-timed box of Junior Mints, for instance. Or the gifting of a well-written book. Or, sure, a diamond or two, thank you very much.

For my 30th birthday a few years ago, my husband surprised me with a trip to beautiful Carmel, California. If you haven't been there, let me tell you, it's like the beach, the mountains, and heaven all rolled into a little ball of goodness. A few weeks before my birthday, just as we were getting into bed, Kyle told me he had a surprise for me and proudly handed me the first of several clues as to what it was. I cannot normally be surprised, because I figure everything out, but this cryptic hint involved Clint Eastwood. As much as I badgered and interrogated my husband over the next few weeks, I could not for the life of me figure out what we were doing. The clues left me dumbfounded and incredibly, speechlessly loved. When the time came, we got on a plane, we flew into the sky, and I had no idea where we were going until we landed in California. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, whisked away on a private jet to San Francisco by Richard Gere—minus the fancy jewels, red dress, and private airplane of course. Oh, and the money exchanging hands.

I loved it all—the trip, the time together, and the thought he put into making my milestone birthday a memorable one. But mostly I loved the suspense and anticipation of the gift in the weeks leading up to it. That made the gift extra special and the love extra full.

One of the things about having gifts as my love language is that I not only love receiving thoughtful gifts, but I also love giving gifts. Whenever I find something that I know a certain someone will love, I cannot wait to give it to them. I giddily anticipate their reaction, hoping they will receive it as my love for them. I receive just as much love from giving a gift as I do receiving a gift.

Call me silly or vain, but I don't feel so bad about my love language because I think God's love language might be gifts also.

The gift-lover in me sees this when I read 1 Peter looking for God's love. Do you see it, too?

_The prophets who told us salvation was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah's Spirit let them in on some of it--that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves--through the Holy Spirit-- the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!_ (1 Peter 1:10–12, MSG)

God showed such care in preparing the Gift.

He dropped tons of clues about this Gift. The whole Old Testament gives practically one clue after another about the Gift's arrival. He waited for the perfect time to give the Gift, giddy with anticipation for the world's reaction. The heavenly realm must have stood on tiptoe, peering, pausing, awaiting this promised Gift. The anticipation built to a perfect climax and then—BAM—the Perfect Giver gave the Perfect Gift.

God gave us His love through an unimaginable gift, Jesus Christ. But may we not miss how He gave it: the joy, the giddiness, the anticipation, and the meticulously planned reveal.

For those with the love language of gifts, the recipient's response is what the whole thing is about.

And so He awaits our response. The heavenly realm stands on tiptoe, peering, waiting.

Will we receive the Perfect Gift with delight?

Our Responses:

Rejoice in the Gift

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

1 John 3:1

Recognize the Gift-Giver

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

Matthew 7:11
Day 7: Redeeming Love

_He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings_ _over your servant, for you are a redeemer."_

Ruth 3:9

Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day." Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman."

Ruth 4:9–12

There is a great deal of history packed into the little city where I live. Big history, too, such as Thomas Jefferson's home, the courthouse where he practiced law, and the starting point for the Lewis and Clark expedition.

It is not all good history, however.

I once stood across the street from the courthouse square at the exact spot where slaves were auctioned off to the highest bidder. As I stood there, I turned and looked out, imagining the perspective of a human being considered and evaluated as property.

Slavery is a recurring theme in the Bible. Indeed, in our exploration of Scripture this month, we will read  a letter concerning a runaway slave. Today, we find the theme in the book of Ruth.

Ruth is not typically associated with slavery. Instead, we think of it as similar to our modern-day Christian romance novels with its damsel in distress and its dashing hero come to the rescue. When we read this sweet book, we pronounce God to be the ultimate match-maker, we stamp "And they lived happily ever after" on the last line, and we close our Bible with a contented, pining sigh.

It is true that Ruth is a love story in all those ways, but if we stop there and don't dig deeper, we miss God Himself, especially how He loves. This picture—the underlying treasure of Ruth—isn't soft and sweet like a romance. This picture involves women of questionable character, idol worship, secret agendas, intrigue, a woman begging a man to marry her, and slavery. In other words, nothing like our modern day Christian romance novels.

First, a little background: Ruth was a Moabite woman. She married into an Israelite family when they sought escape from God's discipline in her country. Moabites were generally despised by the Israelites because they were distant cousins who had turned away from the Lord into pagan beliefs and practices, including using sexual acts to worship false gods. Because of these practices, Moabite women were especially despised; they were considered seductive and loose. No self-respecting, God-fearing Israelite would have anything to do with them.

Ruth was one of those women. There is no telling what she experienced or did prior to her marriage and her subsequent departure to Judah with Naomi when their husbands died. She certainly would not have been welcomed and accepted when she moved into a town filled with Israelites. Without a husband, she was stuck, seemingly hopeless, without provision or protection. Derided by people around her, she likely remembered her past constantly, despite her decision to follow Israel's God.

Although not literally a slave, she lived much like a slave. A slave to her past. A slave to the cultural system where a woman was helpless without a man. A slave to poverty. She was a cast-aside, a lesser than.

But, Boaz. Thankfully, Boaz. Our hero, Boaz, stepped in and took her as his wife. He was what was then called a Kinsman Redeemer, a close relative that redeemed or bought back something that belonged to the family. In the Old Testament, redemption is applied to property, animals, and even the nation of Israel as a whole, but in Ruth's case it is applied to a person.

Redemption means "deliverance by payment of a price." In regards to people, the word picture is literally of someone going to a slave market and purchasing the slave's freedom. So Boaz, by redeeming Ruth, purchased a figurative freedom for her. When he redeemed her, the weight of her past, her reputation, and her poverty lifted immediately.

But if we make this story all about Ruth and Boaz, we miss the larger love story, the foreshadowing of a future Redeemer who would purchase freedom for all the world.

Like Ruth, we know slavery—spiritual slavery apart from Christ. We are the ones standing in a cage, being watched and humiliated by a crowd who seems to know our worst days and our worst stories. We stand destitute, barely clothed. All hope is lost.

Then, Jesus. Thankfully, Jesus.

He here comes. Though the crowd is murmuring, look up. He is pushing His way through until He reaches your cage. He wraps His hands urgently around the bars. Don't be ashamed. Don't try to cover yourself, because you cannot. Look into His eyes and see that He looks at you differently than the crowd does. The tenderness and compassion will make you stand a little taller, hope a little harder. Without hesitation, He is paying for you. Your captor has no choice; he must unlock the cage. Now, Jesus is taking your hand and leading you away from your cage, away from whom you once were. He leads you to His home, not to be a slave, but to sit at the table with Him as a daughter. There, He gives you His name and rich, beautiful clothes that reflect the new you. Best of all, He gives Himself to you.

Because He loves you. That's the only reason He would do such a thing.

If you are in Christ, He has redeemed you. You are no longer the Moabite woman enslaved to your past. You are no longer the outcast. You are no longer at sin's mercy. You don't have to be ashamed any longer. You are no longer a slave, but are now His daughter.

This is Ruth's story, and this is ours: We have been redeemed out of love.

Our Response:

**Leave your chains, once and for all**.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 2:14–17

**Acknowledge your new station**.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:13–14
Day 8: Jealous Love

" _But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return to Me," says the Lord._ Jeremiah 3:1

On her talk show, Oprah Winfrey famously recounted a sermon about God's jealousy as the moment she no longer believed in the God of the Bible: "And God's also a jealous God. Is jealous of me? And something about that didn't feel right in my spirit because I believed God is love and God is in all things and so that is when the search for something more than doctrine started to stir within me..."

Oprah couldn't reconcile God's love with God's jealousy and I don't think she is alone. Although Scripture clearly states that God is jealous ("For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God..." Exodus 20:5), it is difficult to understand how God, who needs nothing from finite human beings, could be jealous.

But when we read the book of Jeremiah, we cannot escape the imagery of God as a jealous Lover, as a Husband whose wife is running around all over town playing the harlot.

In the book, He describes the Israelites as His bride and how He has enjoyed her love:

_Thus says the Lord: "I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness._ (Jeremiah 2:2)

However, His bride has turned to other lovers, to  gods that are useless. He uses some pretty graphic language about what His bride has done:

  * _On every high hill and under every green tree, you lay down, playing the harlot._ (Jeremiah 2:20)

  * _Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number._ (Jeremiah 2:32)

  * _Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel._ (Jeremiah 3:20)

Despite their harlotry, God calls them to return to His side so that He might enjoy them and bless them once again:

_"Return, O backsliding children," says the Lord, "for I am married to you. I will take you....and give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."_ (Jeremiah 3:14)

In these passages, God's jealousy rages. But His love rages equally.

He is jealous _for_ people, not jealous _of_ people. Although He is angry with His people because of their sin, His jealousy is less about competing with other lovers and more about what is best for His people. After all, there really is no competition, as we discovered in 1 Kings. God is living, active, powerful, and completely other. All other gods just reflect the limitations and selfishness of man.

His jealousy is fueled by passionate love, not by passionate anger. The bride's harlotry results  in His anger, but even then it is a holy anger, calmed only by the bride's repentance.

God is jealous for His bride's affection because He knows what will make her happiest: Him. And He wants this for her, the very best. James 4:5 even says that the Spirit, like any good husband, yearns jealously for us. If we think money or clothes or security or human relationships or career or kids or self or anything else under the sun can sit on the throne of our hearts as god, we will not experience God's best.

So is God a jealous God? Most definitely, and He is jealous for you! More than anything, He wants you to receive His love, to rest in His embrace, and to quit seeking the arms of lesser lovers.

Our Response:

Give yourself solely to God.

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 6:18–20
Day 9: Heroic Love

It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.

2 Thessalonians 1:6

As children, my sister and I choreographed roller skating routines to songs from the Footloose soundtrack. We added our creative straight lines, circles, and holding hands to the likes of _Let's Hear it for the Boy_ and _Almost Paradise_. Because of its pulsating, frenetic pace—perfect for climatic roller-skating routines involving straight lines and circles—my heart and my skates belonged to _Holding Out for a Hero_. It's quite the theme song, littered with quirky 80's lyrics and a goofy companion music video.

But it's true. Single women everywhere are holding out for a hero, the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds or the white knight upon the fiery steed. As a 10-year-old, I was already holding out for some fifth-grade boy to sweep me off my feet—er—skates.

Let's face it, though. In this world, there is so much holding out and so very few heroes.

Sometimes—often—people hurt people. In my life, I have heard story after story of inflicted pain: unimaginable wickedness, physical hurts, and emotional wounds. I understand in some ways because I have my own pain, my own scars, my own wounds.

We cry out, all creation cries out, for someone to see, for someone to come to our aid, for someone to love us enough to protect us, for someone to make things right. Even people who have died and are in heaven cry out for our relief. The martyrs weep: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10)

We are all holding out for a hero.

When I went looking for love today in 2 Thessalonians, I was reminded to keep holding on, that our Hero is truly coming.

It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. (2 Thessalonians 1:6)

Jesus? The meek and mild Jesus coming to once-and-for-all deal with the schoolyard bully? All the Sunday school pictures show Him to be so sweet, soft, and gentle. Jesus, the carpenter lacking calloused hands? Jesus, with to-die-for feathered hair and a glamour shot for the ages?

Revelation 19:11–16 paints a completely different and completely accurate and completely awesome picture of Jesus:

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse {yay! A fiery steed!}. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God...Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations...And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Evidently, Jesus has a sword for a tongue, a face on fire, and a totally killer tattoo. I definitely want to be on His side in the end because He is a fierce warrior who protects and avenges those He loves. He will repay the injustices He has seen: the innocent tortured, the unjust rulers bearing down, the secretive, wicked acts that destroy souls. He will finally and physically step in between His children and evil and take evil down.

He will repay all injustice.

He will repay all your injustices.

Even now, while we live in the not-yet, He loves us warrior-like: the Holy Spirit restrains evil in the world (2 Thessalonians 2:7) and the Lord is establishing us and guarding us from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

His love is strong. And, as our Hero, He is worth waiting for.

Our Responses:

Leave vengeance up to the Lord.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:17–21

Pray for His return.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God..

2 Peter 3:10–12
Day 10: Complete Love

_Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit,_ _according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world,_ ___and not according to Christ._ _For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and_ _you are complete in Him_ _._

Colossians 2:8–10

Perhaps the most famous movie line about love is Tom Cruise's breathless admission to Renee Zellweger in _Jerry Maguire_ : "You complete me." Women everywhere swooned, not because the words came from the hunk in _Top Gun_ , but because his line spoke to our innate desire to be wanted and valued. To complete someone's life would attest to our worth; we would have earned the love of another. In our world, this kind of love is the ultimate possession, but it is always just out of reach.

The way of the world is performance.

The way of the world is meriting love.

The way of the world is fluid, ever-changing, ever-evolving love.

The way of the world is imperfect and incomplete love, no matter how well people love.

The way of the world is marred, broken, and destroyed relationships.

They have to be maintained and worked at.

The way of the world is unforgiveness and bitterness.

Unfortunately, we often assume that the way of the world is also the way of God:

That He is about performance.

That we have to merit His love.

That His love for us is fluid and changeable.

That His love is imperfect ("It can't cover all my sin") and incomplete ("If I don't keep up my spiritual disciplines, I will lose it").

We have to keep the spiritual plates spinning to keep His love and His favor.

He is unforgiving and bitter toward us.

Colossians tells a different story. Let's read it again:

_"Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit,_ _according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world,_ _and_ _not according to Christ._ _For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and_ _you are complete in Him_ _."_ (2:8–10)

The way of the world and the way of God completely oppose one another.

It is so difficult to understand and believe a love that is so wholly unlike worldly love. But according to Scripture it's true: God's love is a complete love.

His love does not depend on our behavior or performance, good or bad.

His love does not change, ever, no matter what.

His love is perfect. There is nothing it cannot handle.

His love cannot be lost.

We don't have to work to maintain His love for us.

His love is a once-and-for-all kind of love.

All of these are true because His love was completed for us on the cross. When we take up that cross and surrender our lives to Him, it's a done deal ("It is finished"). We are complete. Nothing can ever change His love, because when He looks at us, He sees Christ.

And we know how He feels about His Son.

Our Response:

Trust God by faith that He completes us.

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Ephesians 2:7–9, MSG

### Day 11: Restorative Love

_But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them._

Nehemiah 9:17

Jerusalem, the city meant to declare God's name, lies in rubble on the ground. The glory of Solomon's era has past. Now it stands bare, lifeless, stripped, and unprotected, a shameful shadow of its former splendor. A powerhouse brought low. A chosen people scattered. A city desecrated.

Nehemiah, having heard news from afar about the beloved city, mourns over the reproach of his people. He knows that the pride and hard-heartedness of his people have caused their own destruction. Previously, God warned them of this, that if they haughtily turned away from Him, there would be consequences. Certainly, the consequences have arrived: captivity, broken fortifications, reproach, and an entire city in distress. Grieved, Nehemiah pleads with God for the people by confessing their sins:

_O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You._ (Nehemiah 1:5–6)

He is so grieved over their sin and the physical representation of that sin—Jerusalem's rubble—that he travels to Jerusalem to see it for himself. There, standing above the city, taking in its remains, he weeps.

And God responds.

God responds to an entire wayward nation because of this singularly repentant man. He loves a broken and contrite heart. Through Nehemiah's leadership, God restores a whole people to Himself, as well as the beloved city's fortification.

From rubble to complete restoration. This is the way of God when His people submit to Him.

There is another man weeping over Jerusalem, some 500 years after Nehemiah's time. The city is not in physical rubble, but it is in spiritual shambles, full of religious people who are dangerously hard-hearted toward God. Soon, lacking the spiritual eyes and ears to understand His desire to gather them, protect them, forgive them, lead them, restore them, they will crucify the Weeper.

He longs to transform their spiritual rubble into complete life restoration because this is His way, the way of Jesus. If they would just let Him.

Perhaps today you are weeping too over the rubble of sin or failure or things out of your control. Perhaps you are reflecting on the rubble left from long-ago decisions, rubble that you are trying desperately to hide, run away from, or move past once-and-for-all.

Jesus stands over that rubble, weeping with compassion for you. But more so, He calls for you to come to Him, His spiritual Jerusalem:

_O Jerusalem, Jerusalem....how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings._ (Matthew 23:37)

Even standing in their rubble, so many are still not willing to submit to Him. Are we?

We don't often believe Him when He says He forgives. We don't often believe He can love us enough to fully restore us to our Garden of Eden glory.

Whether we believe it or not, the substance of God's love is mercy and grace. He is mercy and grace. He does mercy and grace. He gives mercy and grace. He doesn't just forgive (mercy). He blesses and bestows favor (grace), enough so that a life completely broken down can be fully rebuilt. It is His response to all repentant, softened hearts.

From rubble to restoration. This is the way of God.

Our Response:

**Confess your sin once-and-for-all**.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:1–12

Believe that He will redeem your failure and brokenness.

So I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.

Joel 2:25
Day 12: Forgiving Love

And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

2 Samuel 12:13

About a year into our marriage, Kyle and I got into a life-changing fight. Can a fight be one-sided? Because that's what it was. I snapped at him about something trivial, and instead of snapping back, he just calmly left the room. I was being a crazy person and he knew it. As soon as he left, I felt ashamed. Why had I gotten so angry about something of such small consequence? Why would I choose to hurt my husband like that? With my tail between my legs, I went to him.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"I forgive you," he said, and he meant it. He actually smiled as he said it.

That's it? I thought. No penance required, no pouting, no silent treatment, no dumping on of shame, nothing? It's just forgiven that easily?

My eyes must have revealed my uncertainty because he reached out for my hand and pulled me to his lap. Then he wrapped his arms around me, looked me in the eyes, and reiterated, "I forgive you. I love you, Christine."

As we embraced, the Lord whispered to my heart, the heart struggling to understand true forgiveness and grace, "This is exactly how I love you. I don't keep a record of wrongs or hold your sin over your head. When you confess something to Me, I forgive you."

Can love be love without including forgiveness? I don't think so.

God, being love Himself, must therefore be a forgiving God. He may discipline for a time, as we learned in Lamentations, but even His discipline comes from a place of love, and our repentance is always met with instant forgiveness.

This is the story of David as found in 2 Samuel. David is known for many things, but his life best illustrates God's loving forgiveness toward His children. When Nathan confronted David about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, David immediately repented:

So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Samuel 12:13)

In this verse, David's response seems simple and understated, quite possibly even insincere. However, in Psalm 51, which depicts his private communication with God regarding his adultery and subsequent murder of Uriah, he is clearly repentant. He understands the extent of what he has done against God and is greatly grieved by it.

How did God respond to David's grave sin? Speaking through Nathan, God told David that he would suffer the consequences of his sin (discipline), but that his sin was forgiven. Specifically, Nathan said, "God has put away your sin." He has accepted David's confession, extended forgiveness, and put it out of His mind.

God loved David, but not anymore than He loves you or me. In fact, Nathan's choice of words reflects almost exactly what Paul says Jesus has done for us:

_And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us..._ _And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross._ (Colossians 2:13–15)

The debt has been paid in full. There is nothing else required.

That is forgiveness.

God loves with a forgiving love. Without a doubt, you have offended Him, hated Him, and betrayed Him. But when you confess and repent of your sin, He pulls you to His lap, embraces you, and whispers in your ear:

I forgive you.

_Because I love you_.

Our Responses:

**Don't wait to confess sin**.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

Hebrews 3:12–15

Rejoice in His forgiveness.

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103:8–14
Day 13: Sacrificial Love

_But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,_ _then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify_ _for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our_ _conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant._

Hebrews 9:11–15

I ask my kids all the time if they know Jesus loves them. They nod vigorously, so sure. Then I ask, "How do you know for sure that Jesus loves you?" With furrowed brows, a hint of question in their voices, they reply, "The Bible says so?"

As a teenager, I wanted a better answer to that question than "the Bible" or the more specific "because Jesus died on the cross for me." I wanted a specific-to-me answer so that I could nod vigorously, so sure of His love. I searched the Scriptures intently for the perfect verse that would prove how much God really loved me.

But what further evidence do I need beyond His death? His was not just a death, but a brutal death, a willing death, a gory death, a suffering death. He sacrificed Himself for me, a wretch.

The cross is all neat and pretty when it hangs on a dangling chain or as décor in my home. But when I consider what He really did, when I imagine being a person in the crowd watching the whipping and the humiliation and the struggle to breathe, I recognize His personal and sacrificial love. If I saw a man being beaten on the street because he stepped in to protect a wretch, I might think him foolish. Certainly, it would be hard not to avert my eyes because of the sheer unfairness and brutality of it all.

But He did exactly that, with each of us in mind. He sacrificed Himself willingly, so that we might live.

_He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself._ (Hebrews 9:26)

_Then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all._ (Hebrews 10:9–10)

Sacrifice is not sacrifice unless it is done without any expectation of receiving something in return. That is the beauty of Christ's sacrifice. He gave Himself while we were still His enemies and before we could do anything to earn it. He went to the cross, not expecting anything in return.

This is the ultimate love. May we never move past it, averting our eyes, looking for something more.

Our Responses:

Stop trying to earn God's love or prove your worthiness for it.

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

Hebrews 4:9–10

He gives of Himself willingly. Ask Him for what you need.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14–16
Day 14: Pursuing Love

If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?

Matthew 18:12

The book of Matthew, I am discovering, is a love story.

We relish a good love story, do we not?

Most—if not all—romantic movies are relentlessly formulaic, but we don't care. Give us the at-first-sight love in _West Side Story_ , the ironic love in _You've Got Mail_ , the lifetime love in _The Notebook_ , the stand-outside-of-a-window-wearing-a-goofy-trench- coat love in _Say Anything_ , the extravagant love in the Tiffany scene in _Sweet Home Alabama_ , the stupidly sacrificial love in _Romeo + Juliet_. Give it to us, all of it. But most of all, give us love that pursues at all costs, no matter what, no matter the misunderstanding that sent us off into the musical montage of the lovers' miserable separation.

Have you ever noticed that pursuit is the essence of every love story? Let's face it, we know where the story is going from the moment we sit down with our popcorn and Junior Mints: the wedding, the kiss, or the first date. The ending is anticlimactic really. What draws us and keeps us in the movie or book is the pursuit. How will we get to the wedding, the kiss, or the first date?

We want someone somewhere to love us enough to pursue us like that, the way John Cusack seeks Kate Beckinsale for years in _Serendipity_. We want to be on the receiving end of the love story (or the mitten in the face in the middle of Central Park).

There is something about love that we love. We desire to experience it. We give up everything to have it. We work hard to keep it. And we watch goofy, improbable movies about it over and over again.

Perhaps that love of love truly is innate. Perhaps our earthly, tangible experience in love-relationships mirrors a much more perfect, beautiful love-relationship. A small story that echoes a story of epic proportions. I think it's not just a "perhaps." It is the exact idea presented in Ephesians 5 about Christ and the church.

And it's the overarching story of Matthew: that God loves with a pursuing love. Read it and you'll see. All the words and actions of Jesus point to this way He loves. They show that:

**He pursued you previously**.

Before you even knew of the pursuit, when you were still far off, the Good Shepherd began searching for you:

_If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?_ (Matthew 18:12)

Jesus pursues you, His sheep, so that He can protect you, provide for you, know you, and be known by you. He takes the initiative in your relationship and the responsibility for your care.

He pursues you personally.

His pursuit is individual, personal, knowing.

_Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from Your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows._ (Matthew 10:29–30)

This is no blind pursuit. He absolutely knows everything about you, even the exact, but ever-changing number of hairs on your head. Not one falls to the ground or comes off on your clothes without His full awareness. This awareness is a loving awareness, not the kind that makes one run to hide in shame. Even with all He knows about you, He hasn't and won't stop pursuing you. He loves you.

**He pursues you purposefully**.

He pursues you because He loves you, period. But He also has purpose in reaching you. Big purposes. He wants to provide direction, guidance, and leadership. He wants to take your burdens from you and give you rest.

_But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd._ (Matthew 9:36)

_Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light._ (Matthew 11:28–30)

He pursues you presently.

The pursuit is still on:

_Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me._ (Revelation 3:20)

_I am with you always, even to the end of the age._ (Matthew 28:20)

He's not just there, standing off to the side, observing, crossing His fingers that all will work out for you. He still acts as Shepherd, Leader, and Initiator.

The questions is: Do we respond to, or even recognize, His pursuit?

Today as I ran errands, I enjoyed the leaves bleeding red and orange on the trees. Suddenly, it hit me. There He is, pursuing me with His wild, creative beauty. Showing off. And what for? To keep the fall schedule intact, to make sure creation does His bidding? What if, instead, He created the seasons just so I can recognize Him and see His hand at work on a mundane Monday? There is no Brad Pitt or George Clooney in the world who can do that for his leading actress.

What if He pursues us in those tiny ways: "See those orange leaves? I did that because I love you. Enjoy Me."

We all long to be loved that way, the pursuing way.

And we are. We are a part of the greatest love story still being written.

Our Responses:

Receive His pursuit.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Matthew 11:28–30

When He seeks, respond.

Psalm 27:8

When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, Lord, I will seek."
Day 15: Protective Love

For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.

Obadiah 10

Obadiah—our Love Letter for today—provided me with a second opportunity to peruse the table of contents of my Bible. I have read the book of Obadiah once before, but it's not somewhere I often camp out when I need a little encouragement or a nice sweet devotional for the day.

Have you read it? If not, you should. It is a quick read and a nugget of a book that provides a perfect snapshot of the message of all of the Old Testament prophet books.

Assuming you haven't read it, here are the Cliffs Notes on the book: Obadiah records the longest-running sibling rivalry in history up until that point. The Hatfields and McCoys have nothing on Israel and Edom, two nations who can trace their lineage back to Jacob and Esau. You might recall those two as the twins who started fighting in Rebekah's womb and kept fighting into adulthood over birthrights and blessings. It seems the fighting continued after their deaths. Jacob's descendants became the nation of Israel and Esau's descendants became the nation of Edom.

From the time Jacob and Esau had kids, the nation of Edom was a thorn in Israel's side. Edom, like a playground bully, wouldn't let the Israelites pass through their land when the Israelites were headed to the Promised Land. Saul, David, Joab, and Solomon all had massive migraines because of the nation of Edom. Worst of all, Edom often sided with Israel's enemies during war, even encouraging the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem.

The book of Obadiah picks up their story after centuries of fighting. Within the first few verses, it is clear that, like two three-year-olds, these two cannot be left alone in the same room together without supervision. God has had enough of the bullying and the sibling rivalry and has stepped in to break things up. But He isn't just sending each unruly kid to separate corners. He takes sides. He circles the wagons around Israel—His people—and describes the retribution coming for Edom.

If we're honest, this doesn't sit right. Isn't God a gracious God? Doesn't He love all the little children of the world? How could He pick sides? After all, we all know Israel's history, how they waffled on their commitments with God. They don't seem to deserve any special treatment. It doesn't seem fair.

It may not be fair in our human perspective, but it is loving. A covenant love, this is the kind of love that God exhibits on every page of the Bible, the kind where He sticks to his commitments and loves faithfully even when His people don't deserve it.

An aspect of covenant love is that God is a fierce protector of those He loves. If anyone wants to get to His kids, they have to go through Him first.

Everyone is protective when it comes to those they love. Truly, nothing ruffles my feathers more than when someone says anything remotely critical of my husband or my children. I know their weaknesses and faults, just like they know mine, but if anyone else dares to speak them out loud, I immediately jump to the defense of my loved ones.

Sometimes I feel like I'm alone in the fight or I lack emotional or spiritual protection. Sometimes I wonder if I have help fighting the dark spiritual battles that rage against me. Sometimes I want to know that I'm taken care of, that someone strong and warrior-like stands in my defense.

This book tells me that I have a fiercely loving protector who stands in my defense.

In fact, He defended me to the death.

Our Responses:

Let God fight for you.

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Exodus 14:14

Delight in your protection.

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;

With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Psalm 5:11–12
Day 16: Everlasting Love

His ways are everlasting.

Habakkuk 3:6

When I tell my husband stories about when I was child, like that I had a pink sweatshirt covered in animals wearing braces and headgears to match my own, he always says, "I wish I could have known you then." (And, "If I had seen that, I never would have married you.")

When my husband tells me the details of his mischievous high school pranks or about his championship football exploits, I repeat his sentiments: "I wish I could have known you then." (And, "If you had known me in high school, you wouldn't have given me the time of day.")

Kyle and I share an extensive history, but it only goes so far. I love him intimately and deeply, but I was not there when he was born, when he learned to walk, or when he attempted to throw a batch of pudding at his brother but hit the ceiling instead. I love those stories about him, but I don't know that Kyle. He loves me, but he wasn't there when I learned to ride a bike, when I had my first broken heart, or when I stole $20 from my sister's drawer. He doesn't know that Christine.

There is only One who knows us that intimately, who has been there for it all. He hasn't just been there. He has loved me all along, before I even heard His name or knew He was there. His love had no beginning and will have no end. We have always been and always will be enveloped in His love.

Oh, the thought! All the ways that He loves us—with  pursuing love,  jealous love,  intimate love—are not just happening presently or because of who we are now. His love is everlasting, unchanging in the past, present, and future.

He loved you in the past, before you even knew about it:

_Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them_. (Psalm 139:16)

_But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us._ (Romans 5:8)

**He loves you today** , with children swirling at your feet, dirty dishes in the sink, yesterday's failure on your mind, and hurts hanging in your heart:

_Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him_. (1 John 4:15–16)

_I will never leave you nor forsake you._ (Hebrews 13:5)

**His love for you will remain forever** :

_In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also._ (John 14:1–2)

God's love has surrounded you since before you were even a thought. His love surrounds you today. If you are in Christ, you will forever abide in His love. There is nothing you can do or not do that will separate you from Him.

I don't know about you, but that is a reassuring thought today. So much of life and love is fleeting or ever-changing. I'm thankful that God's love is so big and long and solid that I can cling to it for a lifetime.

Our Responses:

Rejoice even in barren times because God's love remains.

Though the fig tree may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,

And there be no herd in the stalls—

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk 3:17–18

Give thanks for His everlasting love.

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 107:1

### Day 17: Approving Love

_Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: "Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O God; and You have also spoken of Your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree, O Lord God. What more can David say to You for the honor of Your servant?"_

1 Chronicles 17:16–18

Fathers love differently than mothers. I love through snuggles, hugs, care-taking, food, and helping. My husband loves our boys through wrestling, coaching, silliness, rough affection, modeling, and play. I love tenderly, alongside. He loves tenderly, out front. Our boys run to me when they are vulnerable or in pain, but they look to their father for direction, examples, and leadership. Like all sons (and daughters), they long for their father's approval. I see this longing in them as they try to match their likes to Kyle's and succeed at things he loves.

First Chronicles is a book about both an earthly father and his son and a heavenly Father and His sons. It is also about approval. In its pages, God, repeatedly calling Himself a Father, blesses David with His approval, and then David passes that approval on to his son Solomon.

Many earthly fathers mar the picture of proper fatherly love, making it difficult to understand how God the Father loves. Thankfully this book gives us a glimpse:

_I (God) will be (Solomon's) Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him (Saul) who was before you (David). And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever._ (1 Chronicles 17:13–14)

Later, David repeats God's words to Solomon as a verbal blessing to his son:

_God said to me, "It is your son Solomon who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his Father."_ (1 Chronicles 28:6)

A good father loves by protecting his children and providing for them. A great father goes beyond protecting and providing, however. A great father expresses his approval of his children and extends his blessing to them. With his approval, he says, "I like you. I am for you." His extended blessing acts as an emotional inheritance: "I will give you everything I have. I am investing myself in you. I am joyfully passing on my name and my heritage to you."

God is not just a good Father. He is a great Father. He gives Himself willingly and completely to His spiritual children. We see it with David and Solomon, two men who are not actually His sons. His blessings and mercy continue toward them even after their deaths, for Jesus came through their lineage. In fact, His blessing and approval toward them even extend to us today through the One who came from them. It is a lineage of approval and blessing.

If we are in Christ, our Father extends that same approval toward us. He has even given us a seal of approval so that we might not doubt it:

_God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee._ (2 Corinthians 5:5)

The Holy Spirit's presence in our hearts assures us that we are no longer slaves, but sons; no longer outcasts, but chosen. We are included in the inheritance of Jesus. We enjoy the same blessing that God bestowed on David and Solomon.

Unlike a withholding earthly father, we don't have to clamor for God's approval or attention. We can rest in the strong arms of our Father, assured that we have His attention, blessing, and approval. We have His heart. He is for us.

And His approval will never, ever go away. In fact, it will follow us into eternity.

Do you know that approval? Run to the protective, loving arms of your Father and let Him tell you today.

Our Responses:

By faith, receive God's approval. Approach Him as a beloved child.

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide-open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Romans 5:1–5, MSG

God is for you. There is nothing to fear.

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Romans 8:31–32
Day 18: Satisfying Love

_Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all_.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

I've been thinking lately about how a life of faith is a life of uncertainty and risk.

Uncertainty and risk do not consistently make for abiding satisfaction, as if everything is in its place and completely under control. Rather, they make for a persistent sense of longing.

Faith feels kind of like riding an amusement park ride that goes up really high and then suddenly drops back down. In those seconds of free-fall, I'm waiting for the end, hoping for the end, needing the end. But with faith, there isn't always an ending. Things that require faith just lead to more things that require faith. Deep calls to deep.

Sometimes I get tired of having to have faith. I get tired of the uncertainty and the risk and the constant dependence it requires. I want results or the tangible or the sure.

When my faith is weary and deflated, when I'm wanting an end to the free-fall, I clamor for something to hold onto, such as validation from others, assurance from my husband, or even something as trivial as a new pair of shoes. Something to make me feel better. Something to satisfy me, however temporary the satisfaction.

Solomon did the same thing except he had the resources to exhaust all possible avenues of satisfaction. As an old man, spent from his pursuit of the earth's every offering, he warns those searching for satisfaction in fleeting, worldly things. He cautions us in the book of Ecclesiastes, reminding us that he's seen and done and had it all, but that truly only one thing will satisfy: God. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all." (Ecclesiastes 12:13) An authoritative and comprehensive statement from someone who has been there, done that, and wants to save us the time and grief of learning it on our own.

Solomon's words remind me of Peter's to Jesus: "Lord, to whom (else) shall we go? You have the words of life." (John 6:68) Peter sounds like a man who, like Solomon, has tried a few things in life in search of an answer or two. Finally, he's found the Answer and he's holding on for dear life.

Even when my faith is weary, my heart resonates with Peter's. Where else can I go? He is my life, my love. He satisfies. His love satisfies, for truly there is no earthly love, however deep, that can meet our every need or know us as intimately as He does.

Being satisfied by Him doesn't mean that everything in life is suddenly tied into a nice, neat package, or that all is forever right in our personal worlds. His satisfying love doesn't mean that, in depending on Him, it won't stir up feelings of falling, of being completely out of control.

His love satisfies because it means that He is there with us in the falling, in the uncertainty, in the difficulties and the unseen.

To whom else shall we go? He has the words (and love) of life.

Our Responses:

Learn to depend on Him.

How precious is Your loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Psalm 36:6–9, NKJV

Choose to be satisfied in Him.

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16:11
Day 19: Extravagant Love

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with the, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be nor more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Revelation 21:1–4

 As I have already established, I love weddings: the bride's dress, the vows, the groom's face, the cake, all of it. Because my husband has officiated so many, I've seen all flavors of weddings (and cakes). By far, my favorite weddings always involve a bride and groom oozing with joy and a reception that feels like an uncontained celebration. To me, an extravagant wedding is one informed less by money and more by love and grace. When there is love, you can see it and feel it and practically breathe it in.

No matter how many I attend, there is always one more I'm waiting for: the last one. The last one will overflow with joy, love, and uncontained celebration like I have never seen before. Revelation describes this marriage between the  Lamb of God (Jesus) and  His bride (the church) as the culmination of a long, difficult betrothal period, which we explored on Day Three:

_And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying_ _"Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."_ _And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, "Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!"_ (Revelation 19:6-9)

Talk about a celebration! Finally, the  covenant between the bride and the Bridegroom will be made full. Complete. Consummated:

_Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be nor more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."_ (Revelation 21:1–4)

The marriage will usher in an eternity of peace, for there will be no hindrances or obstacles between God and His people.

No more sin.

No more brokenness.

No more pain.

No more separation or dim sight.

You, together with all believers, are that bride. Jesus is that groom. And there, at the altar of Heaven, He will declare His love for you face-to-face. You will declare yours. And, after the vows, He will lead us to the marriage supper, the most extravagant party we could ever imagine. The party is not the point; the extravagance will only serve to mirror the extravagant love of the Lamb. Because of this love, the Bridegroom and His bride will ooze with joy and there will be uncontained celebration, knowing that death and sin are forever defeated, that the Bridegroom has come for His bride, that she has entered her rest.

We will finally experience true, unadulterated love.

And I'm pretty sure the wedding cake will be heavenly, too.

Our Response:

Clothe yourself in pure bridal attire in preparation for the Bridegroom's arrival.

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Romans 13:11-14
Day 20: Attentive Love

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9

In my marriage, the richest times occur when my husband and I are attentive to one another. We neglect all else—obligations, responsibilities, daily drudgeries, and all other relationships—for the sake of one another. Sitting face-to-face, we listen, share, and hear without distraction or interruption. Those moments, when I have my husband all to myself, fill me up with love.

I feel seen.

I feel heard.

I feel valued and honored and trusted.

I feel connected.

A good marriage, I feel, is one where each spouse is attentive in their love. Attentive in the small details of life, in ways that say, "I'm paying attention. I hear you. My eyes and my heart are on you."

As I read 2 Chronicles, I discovered that God expresses this same kind of attentive love toward His people. He speaks constantly about His eyes: watching, seeing, attuned, searching:

_Now my eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place {the temple}. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and_ _My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually._ (2 Chronicles 7:15–16)

Before Christ, God dwelled in physical places, such as a tent and a temple. He invited His people to find Him there, that they might have a place to commune with Him and enjoy His undivided attention.

Amazingly, because of Christ, we are now the temples in which He dwells. We have His constant attention. The verse above, then, could read about those who are in Christ: I have chosen and sanctified this daughter, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be with her perpetually.

He is there, eyes on you, listening to your petitions. He is attentive in His love for you.

Our Responses:

Turn our eyes to Him.

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.

2 Chronicles 20:12

**Petition Him for what you need**.

Jesus speaks in Matthew 6:25–34, MSG:  
"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

### Day 21: Loving-kindness

_O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore._

Psalm 131

My grandparents like to remind me of the time I stayed with them for a week as a child. Together, we made mud pies, ate snow cones and cinnamon toast, watched Love Connection while I wore my grandmother's nightgown with the built-in bra, and had tea parties with kool-aid and cookies. In the middle of a fun week, I asked to call home. As soon as I heard the familiar sound of my mom's voice on the phone, I sobbed into the receiver, "I want to go home!" as if my grandparents were torturing me.

I thought today of my stories and what they say about me as a child—specifically that visceral longing for the safety and security of my mother—as I explored and considered God's love in the Psalms.

The deep, emotional human utterances recorded in the Psalms say many things about God: He is good to those who trust in Him; He is our source of truth, comfort, and help; He is worthy of man's praise; He is relational and interacts with people on an individual basis.

But how He loves? The Psalms use one word strikingly often for how He loves: Loving-kindness. These declarations of His loving-kindness typically coincide with words and imagery of a motherly love, as in Psalm 36:7–8:

How precious is your loving-kindness, O God!

_Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings_.

This tender, gentle, protective imagery is found again in Psalm 131, when the writer describes God weaning him:

_O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me._ (1, 2)

The word "loving-kindness" comes from a complex Hebrew word that is difficult for scholars to translate. The word is connected to several ideas:

  * **Unfailing or steadfast love** , which God shows by condescending to meet the needs of His creation

  * **Mercy** , shown by active interest and intervention on behalf of one who is suffering or in distress

  * **Covenant loyalty** , which shows God's particular love for His people, and can be defined as His consistent, reliable allegiance and willingness to do good on behalf of another

  * **Truth** , because God's love is interconnected with His truth

Those words so aptly describe a mother's love, do they not? A mother's love is shelter to her children; she tirelessly works to meet their needs, fiercely protects them from harm, and comforts them when they are hurt. She nurtures. She takes care of every detail (almost to a fault) and easily hears and discerns the cries of her individual children. She knows exactly how to comfort each one, for she is the heart of her home.

When I think of how my mother provided the safety, security, and protection that I innately longed for, I realize that God loves the same way. We are all little children in need of a safe place to hide, where we can leave big-people problems in capable hands. He hears our cries and runs to comfort us.

He describes Himself as a mother hen, longing to gather His chicks into safety. It is there, under His wings, that we are fully assured of His love and at peace. It is there that He is tender with us.

Like a child eager for the secure familiarity of her mother's voice, we must look for Him and listen for His voice. About this, Charles Spurgeon writes:

Lord, my sorrow makes me deaf. There is but one voice that can cheer me: cause me to hear thy loving-kindness. That music I desire to hear at once—cause me to hear it in the morning, at first dawning hour. A sense of divine love is to the soul both dawn and dew; the end of the night of weeping, the beginning of the morning of joy. Only God can take away from our weary ears the din of our care, and charm them with the sweet notes of his love.

His loving-kindness calls. Go now to the safety beneath His wings.

Our Response:

Listen for His voice.

Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for in You do I trust.

Psalm 143:8

### Day 22: Unfailing Love

_The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor._

Esther 8:16

Have you ever known someone who was foolishly in love?

I knew a girl once who kept a guy on the line just because she could, because she liked the attention, because she needed the approval. She made a fool out of him and all his friends said so, but he let her trample on his exposed affections anyway.

His mantra, straight form _Dumb & Dumber_, was clear: "So you're saying there's a chance!"

Sometimes God's love seems foolish like that. He sticks with people who keep turning against Him. They always fail Him; He never fails them. They seem incapable of fidelity; He remains faithful to the bitter end. They break promises; He keeps every one. They harden their hearts toward Him; He maintains a soft spot for them even though they trample on Him. They harden their fists in rebellious anger; He calls them the apple of His eye. His love is loyal and unfailing. It throws caution to the wind: You are my people. I will be your God forever, no matter what.

It might appear that God is a wimp, that He lets people walk all over Him, or that He turns a blind eye to His bride's harlotry. However, we've learned in our jaunt through  Lamentations,  2 Thessalonians, and  Jeremiah that this isn't so. He disciplines. He is righteously jealous. He deals with sin.

But through all those times when His bride is far off, running around on Him, He still loves her.

A perfect example of this is found in the book of Esther.

Just like the book of  Ruth, we like to think of Esther as an improbable love story in which a woman (girl power!) saves the day. Esther is an improbable love story, but it's not a love story between a man and woman. Instead, it is between God and His people. Here's why: Esther and her relative Moredcai, the principal characters, are living in Persia—not their Jewish homeland. That means they were part of the group exiled by God, as described in Jeremiah. And that also means that they were a part of the group who didn't listen when the prophet Jeremiah told them to return home to enjoy God's provision. Esther and Mordecai were both disobedient and apathetic to God.

God is not mentioned in the book of Esther. It seems He is distant, far away, possibly uncaring or unaware of what is happening to His people in Persia. But really it is Esther who is far away, and it is God who, despite their distance from Him, is aware of every detail of the coming doom of His people in Persia.

In the book, He dramatically reminds His people of His providence by protecting them from utter destruction at the very last second. He blesses them corporately, but He also reveals Himself personally to Esther and Mordecai, two people who have been at best apathetic toward Him, by giving them favor with higher-ups. Most of all, He reminds them and us that He will never go back on His covenantal promise to love. No matter what.

He loves us, people now included in the covenant through Christ, with that absolutely unfailing love. There is nothing you or I can do or not do that will ever change that. As we look at our wicked hearts and our selfish, grabby lives, God's love toward us almost seems foolish. But He loves that way, with that never stopping, never giving up on us kind of love.

No matter what.

Our Response:

Try to determine what could bring God's love for you to an end. Rejoice that there is nothing.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:36–40
Day 23: Love That Cannot Be Demanded

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die."

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"

Job 2:7-10

There is a whole lot I don't know or understand about the book of Job. However, there are some things I do know:

  * The book illustrates that there is suffering in the world and that it can be extensive and horrific.

  * The book shows that suffering is not discriminatory. Although we obviously can bring suffering on ourselves through our sinful actions, sometimes undeserving people suffer.

  * The book greatly contrasts God and man; one is all-powerful and the other, dust.

  * The book captures the anguishing question we all ask about suffering: Why?

But what about God's love? The book of Job is one of the saddest, most depressing books in the Bible. In my quest for love, I half expected to get to this book and throw my hands into the air with a cry of "Uncle!"

This exploration of Scripture has been interesting because I have learned many things about God and the Bible, but I've learned the most about myself. I have learned that I like to think about God or experience His love in my own predetermined ways, but I ignore some of the harder or less sugary sweet  facets of His love. But if we are really going to know God and how He loves, and if we are going to experience Him fully, we have to boldly face all that Scripture has to say about Him. Otherwise, how can we trust Him when suffering comes? If we see Him as a Santa Claus in the sky or a great big, fluffy teddy bear, we will desert Him at the first sign of trouble, when He doesn't act as we think He should or when He doesn't give us what we think we deserve.

That is exactly what happened in the book of Job. When Job experienced suffering, his wife and his friends gave him all kinds of bad advice based upon their misconceptions of how God acts and how He loves. Those misconceptions led them to disastrous places.

So where is it in this whole sad story? Is it even there at all?

If there is anything the book of Job teaches us about God's love it is that it cannot be demanded. Job asks tons of questions of God, the primary one being what we all want to know: Why? And though he comes close to crossing the line, Job never outright demands anything from God in the midst of his suffering. He asks, yes. But he does not demand. He knows his rightful place. Despite all the circumstances pointing to the contrary, Job trusts God's love toward him. Ours is not a love relationship between equals. God orchestrates and sustains all of creation. We exist at His mercy. As a result, God does not owe us anything in life, including His love.

The gift of love is so much better when it's given freely rather than demanded. I have certainly learned that lesson in marriage, but I think it's even truer with God's love. If we place expectations on God or demand our way from Him, we will certainly miss the gift entirely. However, if we trust that God is good and can make good out of everything, including our suffering, we will recognize His love and grace abundantly poured out on us.

This is why His love, as shown in Christ, is such a priceless gift: He gave it freely, of His own accord. We did not deserve it; certainly we could never have demanded such a gift. We cannot earn such a gift. And we cannot pay it back. We simply receive the gift of His love, humbly and gratefully.

Our Response:

**Repent of entitlement or pride**.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me." Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?"

Job 38:1–11

Then Job answered the LORD and said: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Job 42:1–6

### Day 24: Love in Return

_It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord._

Leviticus 1:17

How to be a loving wife:

  * Keep the pantry stocked with Three Musketeers bars or Peanut M&M's.

  * Greet your husband with a hug and a kiss when he comes in the door after work.

  * Linger at the table for conversation after dinner is done.

  * Wear black, red, or white.

  * When he asks, tell him how long to heat things in the microwave.

  * Tell him what you like about his sermons.

  * Laugh at his jokes, even those he has repeated 300 million times.

  * In the winter, preheat his electric blanket before bed.

  * Respond when he gives affection.

  * Watch the Rangers baseball game instead of _Dancing With the Stars_ (and, while watching, refrain from asking millions of questions).

OK, so that's not a list of how every wife can love her husband. That is a running list, developed over years of marriage, of ways that I can love my husband. I know how he receives love or what is important to him because he has told me. I have taken mental notes and made conscious decisions to do things that I know he will like. Because he loves me. And because I want to love him back. I want to do as much as I can to show him that I love him in ways that he receives my love best.

Plain and simple, that is what the book of Leviticus is all about:

God loves His bride.

He wants His bride to love Him in return.

He doesn't want His bride to have to guess how He wants to be loved, so He gives her specific ways to show it: a little burnt offering here, a little ritual cleansing there, all a sweet fragrance of worship.

Leviticus, ugh. It's so full of weird rules and rituals that we happily skip right over Leviticus, praising Jesus in Heaven that we no longer have to worry about what is cooked in what milk or how we're going to get away for a few days when it's that time of the month. After all, Christianity is about a relationship and not rules, right? Goodbye, Leviticus. Hello, Galatians.

There is a slight catch, however. We are no longer under the Levitical law, but Scripture says that those external laws are now, through Christ, written on our hearts. The list of rules has been done away with, but now the Holy Spirit guides us in the way we should go. Because of Christ's death and resurrection, the "list" has changed somewhat, but the caveat found in Leviticus still holds true:

_You shall therefore be holy, because I am holy._ (Leviticus 11:44)

_As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct._ (1 Peter 1:14–15)

He still wants to be loved in return. He still desires our worship, our lives. Christianity is not a list of rules, because rules are essentially love-less. It all comes down to this: we love Him because He first loved us. And He shows us how He is best enjoyed and loved. Not only that, but He empowers and enables our feeble, wandering hearts to return His love.

Thankfully, we don't have to guess how to love Him. The Spirit and the Word provide us with the structure and boundaries of what that love looks like. As we receive His love and walk close to Him, He shows us how to love Him back. A few examples:

_You shall love your neighbor as yourself_. (Matthew 22:39)

_For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again._ (2 Corinthians 5:14–15)

_But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you._ (Matthew 5:44)

_For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them._ (Ephesians 2:10)

What a beautiful, perfect love story in which we are loved, fully and completely, but also can love our God in return. Thank you, Lord.

Now I'm off to the store. We're out of Three Musketeers bars.

Our Responses:

Submit to Him. God loves a heart submitted to Him.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:16–17

Know what He wants to write on our hearts.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8
Day 25: Resourceful Love

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

I love reality TV, mainly because it is so completely unlike the reality I live in. Believe it or not, I don't spend my days racing from country to country, modeling, working out 8 hours a day, or throwing $50,000 birthday parties for my kids.

I am especially fascinated by celebrity reality shows. I love behind-the-scenes kinds of stuff so I jump at any chance to snoop into the homes or routines of people who lead unusual lives. I'll warn you now: if you invite me into your home, I'll probably want to see every room in your house, as well as what is in every closet, nook, and cranny. I'm nosy that way.

Celebrity reality TV also fascinates me because they all have an insane amount of people around them at all times —what they often call their "team." As in, "I have a great team, but I get all the glory and I love it!" They have personal assistants, makeup artists, stylists, nannies, hair stylists, party planners, drivers, lawyers, and housekeepers. It evidently takes a village to raise a celebrity.

It would freak me out a little bit to have all those people swirling around me at all times of the day, but a little help now and again might not be too bad.

I don't know that I have ever thought about celebrity reality TV shows while reading my Bible, but today I did. As I read 1 Thessalonians, searching for God's love, I realized that Paul's letter reveals a spiritual "team" swirling around me at all times. Paul is writing to new believers who seem to have no idea what they're doing, in the spiritual sense. And he says, basically, "When you were saved, you were given a team. Rely on them daily."

Here is our team and our instructions on how to rely on our team, in no particular order:

God the Father:

  * Know, beloved brethren, your election by God. (1:4)

  * Know that you have been approved by God. Please Him and not men. (2:2)

Jesus the Son:

  * Hope in Jesus. (1:3)

  * Wait for His return. (1:10)

  * Know that He delivers you from the wrath of God. (1:10)

The Holy Spirit:

  * Let Him teach you the gospel. (1:5)

  * Let Him assure you of all the truths of the gospel (1:5)

The Bible:

  * Read the Bible as the Word of God. (2:13)

  * Receive the gospel. (1:5)

  * Know His will through the Word. (5:16–17)

The Church:

  * Pursue edifying relationships with other believers. (2:8, 19–20, 3:11–13)

  * Follow and esteem leaders in the church. (3:2, 5:12)

So what does this have to do with God's love for us? Everything, in fact. Like a celebrity's team works for the good of the celebrity, the "team" we are saved into works for our good. Out of love, God provides us with tools and resources that are of great benefit to us on a daily basis. Instead of saving us and leaving us to figure it all out on our own, He continues "saving" us each and every day.

That's a whole lot better than any personal assistant or stylist, that's for sure.

Our Response:

Get to know your "team".

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

2 Peter 1:2–4
Day 26: Likes & Dislikes

And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.

Mark 6:34

When you know people, really know them, you know what they like and don't like.

Take, for example, my friend Marylyn. She does not like sitting on chairs or to have her personal space invaded. She loves coffee. And the Green Bay Packers, whom she yells at when they are playing on T.V.

Or my sister, Sarah. She hates drama and conflict. She loves decorating, bargain shopping, and Diet Coke.

Or my neighbor, Aimee. She shares my love of reading and writing. She loves spending time with people and she has a fascination with Japan. But, whatever you do, don't feed her egg salad.

Wouldn't you love to know Jesus' personal preferences, His likes and dislikes? The book of Mark actually gives quite an insightful list of what (and who) He loves. Here's what I found:

Jesus' Dislikes:

Rules for rules-sake (2:18–22, 27–28)

Hard hearts (3:5)

When people speak against the Holy Spirit (3:28–29)

Unbelief (6:6, 50)

People who find fault in others (7:2)

People who worship with their lips, but not with their hearts (7:6–7)

People who keep the traditions of men rather than loving God (7:9)

Those who make others stumble (9:42–43)

Divorce (10:1–12)

People who use Him for selfish purposes (11:15–18)

Unforgiveness (11:25–26)

Pretense (12:38–40)

**Jesus' Likes** :

Moments of solitude for prayer (1:35, 6:30–32)

When people believe He is capable (1:41, 5:25–34)

He has compassion for the sick and broken-down (1:40, 5:19)

He has compassion for those who know they are sick and broken-down (2:17)

When people have faith (2:5, 4:40)

Those who do the will of God (3:35)

He has compassion for those who are lost or unprotected (6:34, 10:21)

Outsiders (7:24–30)

People who follow Him (8:1-3, 34–38)

Leaders who lead by serving (9:35)

Children (10:13–16)

Those who sacrifice or suffer for His sake (10:29–31)

Sacrificial giving (12:41–44, 14:6)

Those who take the gospel to others (16:15)

His likes and dislikes help us know what He loves and what He doesn't.

May they become ours too.

Our Responses:

As a disciple, seek to be like the Master.

"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master."

Matthew 10:24–25

Love what He loves, such as children...

And He took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, He said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

Mark 9:36–37

**And people who are broken down**.

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that He might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

Mark 5:18–19
Day 27: Inspiring Love

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord: "For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel." Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the house of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off."

Ezra 3:11–13

No matter how we might try, you and I cannot conjure up true worship. We try, though. We choose worship styles, songs, and instruments as the focus of our worship, completely missing the purpose of it all. Worship has little to do with style or song. It's not even about music or a church service at all. Worship is a response, a result, an overflow, a guttural reaction to restoration. Restoration breeds worship. Unless we know and dwell on our restoration, we will not worship.

The book of Ezra illustrates true worship. Ezra and Nehemiah, which we looked into previously, are buddy-books, primarily because they both describe the restoration of Jerusalem and the Jewish people. In fact, they are one book in the Hebrew Bible.

Through Nehemiah,  we discovered how God's love is restorative, how He rebuilds lives from rubble when hearts are submitted to Him. Ezra shows us the result of the rebuilding, specifically that God's restorative love invokes a worshipful response. Let's read the passage from Ezra again, looking for the heart responses, not just the style of worship:

_And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord: "For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel." Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the house of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off._ (Ezra 3:11–13)

These were people who knew rubble. They had endured captivity, exile, and discipline because of their sins. They had seen their beloved city, Jerusalem, and temple desecrated. They probably felt as if their best years were behind them or that God had forgotten them and moved on.

So when they saw a tangible representation of God's restorative love toward them, they were told to stand and dutifully sing four stanzas of Great is Thy Faithfulness. NO! They praised, they gave thanks, they shouted, they wept, they rejoiced, they expressed their love back to God. Their worship could not be contained by a worship song or style. Their worship was a natural, guttural response to the immense yet personal love of God.

When we too know our rubble and our restoration, our reflection on God's love leads us to respond to Him. The responses are as varied as we are in our giftedness, personality, and background, but all are worship: singing, painting, serving, submitting, loving the unlovable, writing, sacrificing, performing, resting, and leading.

Living a life. That is the only response to a love so big—living a life that honors Him.

Living a life that illustrates the rubble has been restored.

Living a life that receives love from Him and then gives it to others.

Living a life in response to Love.

Our Responses:

Worship with gladness.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Psalm 32:11

Respond with love, both toward God and toward others.

Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 22:37–40
Day 28: Creative Love

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

1 Corinthians 12:4–7

God is a creative God. Just look at this world He created.

The leaves turn in a display of His creativity.

The ocean undulates constantly, calling us to notice Him.

The mountains stand in majesty and grandeur, a small reflection of Him.

And the people, oh the people, who create as a reflection of their Creator: Mozart, Michelangelo, Alexandre Dumas, and Paul Bunyan, just to name a few.

Such an interesting God. Randy Alcorn puts it this way in his book, _Heaven_ :

Have you known people who couldn't be boring if they tried? Some people are just fascinating. It seems I could listen to them forever. But not really. Eventually, I'd feel as if I'd gotten enough. But we can never get enough of God. There's no end to what he knows, no end to what he can do, no end to who he is. He is mesmerizing to the depths of his being, and those depths will never be exhausted. No wonder those in Heaven always redirect their eyes to him—they don't want to miss anything.

Because God is a creative God, He also loves creatively.

He loves every one of His children equally, but He doesn't love them in the same way. He imparts different gifts to us, that we might reflect His own unique characteristics, that we might tell others about Jesus with our lives.

He made the artist, painters using big brushes and small, sculptors using bronze and clay, and sketchers using colored pencils and chalk. All equally loved, but gifted differently.

He made the touchers, those that go off to Africa to care for orphans, off to hold babies in the church nursery, and off with a meal and a hug for the widows. All equally loved, but gifted differently.

He made the musicians, those in the concert hall playing music without words, those behind the organ playing hymns overflowing with gospel truths, and those rockers blasting is-it-or-isn't-it songs on the radio. All equally loved, but gifted differently.

He made the leaders, those off to work at a Fortune 500 company, off to a foreign country, and off to a Bible belt church. All equally loved, but gifted differently.

He combines us all, with our different gifts, to make a collage. And when you step back and look, you suddenly see.

It's Jesus!

The hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears of Jesus.

With our different gifts, we reflect together that God is creative and that He loves creatively.

Our Responses:

Know your gift and use it.

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and or love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:6–7

Do not despise your gift, but realize its purpose.

If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

1 Corinthians 12:15–18

### Day 29: A Love to Remember

_Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out of this place.... You shall tell your son on that day, "It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt."_

Exodus 13:1, 8

On our tenth anniversary, Kyle and I returned to our honeymoon spot. We walked through the hotel we originally stayed in, ate meals at the same restaurants, and meandered through the same streets and same shops. At each point, we remembered. We talked about our wedding and honeymoon—how the rental shop messed up the order for our groomsmen's tuxedo, how we fought about whether to kayak or not, how we explored the island without a care in the world. Primarily, we talked about our ten years together, reflecting on how we had grown as a couple and what we had experienced together, even predicting where the next ten years might take us.

One of the distinctives of covenantal, long-time love is the remembering. We set aside special days to remember our shared story, to remember the day our lives merged, to remember where we once were and how the years have changed us. Remembering is vital to love because it reminds us that the commitment hasn't changed, other than the deepening.

This remembering is the crux of the book of Exodus.

In Exodus, God hears the groans of His covenantal people and chooses to rescue them through blood:

_The Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field_. (Exodus 1:13–14)

_And the Lord said {to Moses}: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians._ (Exodus 3:7–8)

_The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt._ (Exodus 12:13)

If they just apply the lamb's blood, He will free them. He offers the plan of rescue; they need only to remember. Remember, He says, the sight of the blood smeared across the doorway, for the blood is a tangible representation of God's rescuing love.

Remembering is important to God because, in remembering, His acts of faithfulness and love are relived. Especially in a culture where faith was passed through oral stories, sharing Him with new generations required remembering. In remembering, God was celebrated, and the remember-ers were renewed in their faith.

Still today, we are called to be a remembering people. We remember Christ's death on our behalf as we take communion. We remember that He has applied the Lamb's blood to our sin, that we are free. We remember our rescue and proclaim Him until He returns. By remembering, we celebrate Him.

But also, in private moments, remembering fuels our faith and reminds us of God's love. Whether we remind ourselves of the gospel, remember a moment when God came through, or reflect on how He passed over our sin, we celebrate little love anniversaries. In those moments, we give ourselves to Him once more and He repeats His vow to us:

_I heard your groaning when you were a slave to sin, and I remembered my covenant. I am the Lord, and I brought you out from under the burdens of sin, and I delivered you from slavery to sin, and I redeemed you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I took you to be mine, and I am your God, and you know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of sin._ (Paraphrase of Exodus 6:5–8)

Remembering reminds us that, despite our unfaithfulness and wandering, the commitment between us hasn't changed, except for the deepening.

Our Responses:

Remember from where you have come and what Christ has done.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.

Colossians 1:21–22

Remember your first love, if you have forgotten.

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works.

Revelation 2:4–5
Day 30: Impartial Love

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

James 2:1–5

In fifth-grade, we had a student who came to our class at certain points during the day named Sarah. Sarah was mentally disabled. I don't remember much about her other than she always wore a dress to school and she was extremely enthusiastic about everything she did. As fifth-graders, most of us didn't know quite how to respond to her, but we liked her.

Looking back, I realize that we liked her and included her because our teacher liked and included her. It was expected, not necessarily in words, but actions. In fact, it was a reward incorporated in our daily routine to get to work with Sarah one-on-one.

One day when Sarah was in our classroom with her aide, I finished my assignment early so my teacher offered me the opportunity to take Sarah in the hallway to help her learn the names and values of coins. We sprawled on the floor and went through the coins one-by-one. When she recalled the names without assistance, she would smile and clap her hands together excitedly. I couldn't help being caught up in her joy over such small victories.

I only remember two other names of kids in my fifth-grade class. One was my best friend for years; the other was the boy I had a crush on whose name I remember only because his brother's name was Michael Jackson. But I distinctly remember Sarah and often wonder what she is doing in her adult years.

I learned a valuable lesson in Mrs. Ned's classroom that year. I learned that someone who is different from me and has different capacities than me is to be valued, not considered odd and unworthy. I learned this through my teacher's example and by the expectations she had for those she influenced.

I don't know if Mrs. Ned was a believer in Jesus, but she certainly lived out the gospel for me that year.

God's love is not just for a select group. It is for everyone who desires it, no matter his or her country of origin, religious background, lifestyle, skin color, or degree of worldly wisdom. The church must reflect this, showing the world that every person is valued by God and given a seat at the table through Christ's work on the cross, which, as we know, is not based on accomplishment or being able to offer anything of ourselves. The gospel is for the most intelligent just as equally as it is for those who can't even speak.

This is good news for us because we all feel like outsiders at some point or in some way. Paul even called himself the chief of sinners, so sure of his outsider status. We have all wondered if the cross is for us or if our shame and sin exclude us from its grace.

Thankfully, God doesn't have an elite circle. He welcomes all in, no matter where they've been. Knowing this love truly changes things, for us individually, but also for us corporately. If the Spirit of God is given room to move among a community of faith, it will reflect God's impartial love. It will give honor to every member of the body, but even greater honor to those the world considers weaker. It will not reject, whether in word, action, or thought, those considered "different." It will not develop a hierarchical social structure that resembles the local community. Instead, it will be a light set on a hill, beckoning the lost to Jesus because of His love shown to each of its members.

This is not a small matter. If we, as individuals and churches, do not reflect the impartiality of the gospel, we are in sin.

" _My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, 'You sit here in a good place,' and say to the poor man, 'You stand there,' or, 'Sit here at my footstool,' have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors."_ (James 2:1–9)

Similarly, if the Spirit of God is given room to move in our lives, we will be individuals that show compassion and love for every single person we come into contact with, from the tattooed guy sitting next to us on the airplane to the adult with Down Syndrome bagging our groceries.

When we know grace, we give grace.

When we know forgiveness, we give forgiveness.

And when we know love, we give it away.

Our Response:

Because you have been shown mercy, show mercy and grace to others.

The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn't pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market. The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt. The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, 'Pay up. Now!' The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' But he wouldn't do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king. The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.

Matthew 18:23–35, MSG

### Day 31: Compelling Love

_For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother._

Philemon 15

If we didn't already know anything about God and the way He loves, the book of Philemon might seem an odd place to start. Philemon is a brief letter from one man (Paul) to another (Philemon) concerning a runaway slave (Onesimus) who has become a believer and is returning to his owner (Philemon). Along with the letter, Paul sent Onesimus back to his owner to make restitution, pleading with Philemon to accept Onesimus as a beloved brother. How, we wonder, can a book about slavery and thievery teach us anything about God's love?

It has everything to say about God's love, actually.

In this book, God's love is like a blowing wind. We can't directly see the wind, but we can see the way the tree bends or the grass waves because of the wind's movement. Philemon is a story of the impact of God's love: how it is poured out onto people, how those people are changed by that love, and how that love changes the way those people interact.

In Philemon, we find that God's love is compelling. He loves strong, and that love compels us forward toward Him and toward others.

In my mind, I picture it like this: I imagine myself as a weak and beggarly woman crawling toward a pool of water. The water has healing powers for it is filled with an unending supply of the love of God. There at the edge of the water, I reach thirstily for what I believe will satisfy. And it does. It fills me, heals up the wounds, washes me clean, and nurtures me. Though I was weak, dirty, and hopeless, God's love made me new.

Suddenly I realize that there are others there lapping up the water beside me. All around the pool, they are there.

The rich and the poor.

Men and women.

Married and single.

Old and young.

The first world and the third.

Kings and paupers.

People with all manner of skin colors, languages, nationalities, abilities, and political ideologies.

In their need, they are devouring the life-giving love of God.

Just like me.

Philemon shows that the love of God is the great equalizer. For who lives in more different worlds than a rich slave owner and his poor slave?

At the cross of Jesus, the slave owner and his slave become brothers. The love of God compels them toward each other to offer the same mercy and grace that they themselves have received at the water's edge. Ann Voskamp, in _One Thousand Gifts_ , says:

True disciples understand that the gift of God's love is not just to be received and greedily held, as if it actually could be kept in human hands. Eucharisteo is giving thanks for grace. But in the breaking and giving of bread, in the washing of feet, Jesus makes it clear that eucharisteo is, yes, more: it is giving grace away. Eucharisteo is the hand that opens to receive grace, then, with thanks, breaks the bread; that moves out into the larger circle of life and washes the feet of the world with that grace. Without the breaking and giving, without the washing of feet, eucharisteo isn't complete. The Communion service is only complete in service. Communion, by necessity, always leads us into community.

They no longer regard others by external things, but as co-sinners in need of grace and co-new-creations in Christ. There is belonging. Acceptance. Reconciliation. Forgiveness. Mercy. Grace.

So this we learn today: God's love is a gift that is only fully received when we also give it away to others. When we know it, we instinctively give it away. He compels us to do so.

Our Response:

Love others because of how God has loved us.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:7–11
Conclusion: Love Always

As I write, the trees outside my window droop under the weight of ice and, inside, a fire warms my chilled bones. It is winter—cold, silent, and barren.

But in my heart, spring has come. New life and fresh joy poke up where the barrenness once was. I can only attribute winter's thaw to one thing: the love of God that I have discovered in His Word. I have known it for a while now, but the filled-in gaps, the expanded details, and the illustrative stories have sparked something new.

God's love has a way of doing that. It sinks in deep, touching parts of us that have gone fallow or have hidden in darkness, driving out fear and shame. He reveals Himself and then calls us even deeper, though we can never reach His end.

We have only just begun.

In our exploration, we have delved into the mystery of God's love, realizing at the same time that we will never have a full earthly grasp of Him. God's love is infinitely greater than any definition or description we give it. In fact, in each book of the Bible I wrote from, I became noticeably aware that I was barely scratching the surface.

The mystery remains, but we have also attempted to recover the simple, foundational truth that God is love, that we cannot talk about true love without talking about Him. We cannot know God if we don't know love. God and love are interchangeable, a definitive equation where one equals the other.

It is His character, who He is. He consists of love.

It is His will toward us, that we experience His love and love Him and others in return.

It is His action toward us. Everything He does on our behalf or allows in our lives is ultimately from love.

It is His emotion toward us, this jealous, passionate, driving love.

I finish this exploration of Scripture with what I believe is a more accurate picture of God and how He relates to me. I also come away with a clear sense that God's love always compels those who know it to respond in some way. In Ezra, the people worshipped without inhibitions. In Exodus, the Israelites stored God's faithfulness in their hearts to share with the next generation. In Philemon, Christ's love bridged the gap between a slave and a slave-owner. First John made it clear: if we know God's love, we will love our brother. We cannot fully know the gift of God's love until we give it away to others.

I have written for myself, but I have also written for you, that "your hearts might be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2–3)

I hope that you have learned a few things along with me, that your heart's winter has thawed. I hope you have a greater reverence for God's Word. I hope you understand some things you might not have understood before. Mostly, though, I hope you know that the Father loves you.

Like a  Bridegroom loves His bride.

With  redeeming love.

With an  everlasting love.

With extravagance.

With whole-hearted approval.

You  have the ear of God.

Ultimately, this love is not about you or me. It's about the Lover and how well He loves. Knowing what we know about ourselves and knowing how He loves us anyway causes a  response of worship to explode in our hearts.

_We love because He first loved us_.

###

About the Author:

Christine Hoover is an award-winning writer who has been published in _P31 Woman, Just Between Us, MomSense_ , and online at _Christianity Today_ , _In(courage)_ , and _Christian Women Today._ She encourages women in ministry through her blog, _Grace Covers Me_.

In January 2013, Christine will publish a book for church planting wives.

Connect with Christine Online:

Blog: **http://www.gracecoversme.com**

Twitter: **<http://www.twitter.com/christinehoover>**

Facebook: **<http://www.facebook.com/pages/GraceCoversMecom/151645698245996>**

