E-mails from God

God always provides the encouragement that I need.  Oddly enough, it has been coming in the way of e-mails. Lately it seems that when I am struggling with an decision or just need encouragement, all I have to do is open my e-mail and there is what I need.  I subscribe to several different daily e-mails services such as Our Daily Bread or Daily Bible verses. I know that they authors of those services don't know what I need to hear but apparently God is working through them to send me messages. Over the past few months, this has happened on several occasions and today's verse made my heart very happy on a day when I did not wake up that way.

1 Timothy 1:15-16 - Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

God is love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 

In this is love, not that we have 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.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 

We love because he first loved us. 

1 John 4:7-19

 

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
   and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
   and he will make straight your paths.

The Sacrifices of Love

During the month of February and at Valentines day, everyone talks about love. Love is a dominate theme. Yet the love that we all talk about is different than the love God has for us.  We fall in and out of love with people or our love waivers when things go wrong but not God's love.  We are willing to make sacrifices for love but they are not the same sacrifices that God has made for us. We are willing to give up a habit, change jobs, move to a new city but would we make the sacrifice of our son's life? We all talk about love but do we practice love?  Do we love others like we would want to be loved or how God Loves us?  During this month of love, we should try and remember God's love for us.  That He loves us no matter what.  It's a love that does not fail, does not waiver, has no limits, is selfless yet can be uncomprehendable. We may not be able to always comprehend the vastness of God's love but we should know that it's always there and never changing.  

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16