Do you ever wonder why God has created the world and you particularly? Why did God go to great lengths to ensure you’d have a way out of your sins? Simply out of the great love of his.

We can understand loving lovable persons. But God loved us out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were unlovable and dead because of our sins. That is amazing. That is so out of our radar. But that’s God for you. He works out of the great love he has for us.

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Gal. 2:4-10, NRSV, emphasis added*)

God sent Jesus to die for us so he could save us and then lavish us with the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us. God planned all this out of the great love so he could love us even more.

Your salvation is God’s gift from start to finish.
It’s his idea and it’s his work.
All this out of the great love he has for us.

God loves to love you. You were created to live in this love relationship with God. How does that sound? Incredible, I think. We are so unworthy yet God wants to pour love upon love on us. How do we respond? Do we send his gifts back or do we welcome God’s saving grace into our lives? I hope the latter. Because it gets us from death to life. It gives us everything we need. It empowers us to do good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life full of love, peace and joy. Simply out of the great love with which he loved us. Mind-blowing. Stunning. Awe-inspiring. Thank you, God!

 

Gracious God,
We are stunned by your great love toward us.
We are so unworthy yet you love us.
And you love to love us.
We are in awe of you.
We gratefully receive your love.
Make us worthy of you.
Show us how to love like you.
We praise you forever and ever.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you feel God’s love in your life?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you bask in God’s love and pass it on to others!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of Kevin Carden, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. This post is refurbished from 2010. Linking up today with Unite the Bloggersphere , Three Word Wednesday and #tellhisstory.