As I read my email last night, I was also thinking about the hard trial I am currently going through.  Call it revelation or realization, but it occurred to me that my worry and depression may be unnecessary.  There is a way to combat despair.  I need to get a better grasp of God’s love for me.

Suddenly a scripture came to mind, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21).  Keep, watch or guard yourself, to make sure you are flooded in the love of God, is the encouragement.

I began thinking of other verses in the Bible that speak of how much God loves us.  How great and everlasting is His love for our hearts, our lives, our voices and our faces!  He loves us infinitely and gives us eternal life so that He can lavish us with His love forever!

When someone loves us, deeply, devotedly and intensely, we can face or endure anything!  It is when we feel we are alone, unwanted and unimportant that we are overwhelmed by life.

Love is responsive.  It is very difficult to resist being loved.  A gentle touch can give you goose bumps!  When you accept love, you are comforted, warmed in your soul and refreshed.  Hope, health and strength are rekindled by love; especially when that love is unconditional, without condemnation and purely for you.

God’s love is holy, unselfish and giving.  Many people see I Corinthians 13 as the love chapter.  They view it as a way to measure themselves; how much they love others and in what capacity; with which I agree.  But maybe it can also be viewed as the way God loves us.  Maybe we can read it as His love letter to us.

How amazing to think that God’s love goes through all kinds of things for his own; suffers long.  Try really dwelling on how kind, tender and caring God’s love is towards us.  God is interested in building us up, helping and healing us.  The Lord loves us so much; He values us beyond fancy speeches, unparalleled knowledge, power and gold.

How big is God’s love for you and me?  What metaphor can we use?  God’s love is an ocean, a mountain?  How about the wide expanse of the universe – all given to you and me?   How deep, how wide and long can we imagine it to be?  We are talking an infinite being who does everything, including loving us, infinitely!

Such thoughts are wonderful weapons to guard our hearts and surround ourselves with as often as possible.  God’s love for us is a truth that we need to speak of, think about and thank Him for, over and over.  By God’s help, may His love permeate our lives, bodies, souls and spirits, until it influences all that we are!