Dinner: God is Love

by Hillary Mortensen

We may all know the song “Jesus Loves Me,” but I fear that we all too often forget that God IS love. I thought it would be fitting to focus our attention on this as we encounter our daily trials, as well as bear the burdens of the health and healing of those we hold dear. God is not only loving, but He is love.

Consider the following passages regarding God’s love:

1 John 4:8-10, 16a

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God's love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins....Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God living inside, and that person lives in God. And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love....

Psalm 44:22

Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death? As it is written in the Scriptures, 'For you, we are in danger of death at all time. People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed.'

Romans 5:8

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

I hope these truths can be an encouragement to you as they remind you of Jesus' great love for you, as well as His love for Adam, Pat, and Brandon. I pray that you will talk with God about the situations at hand—about everything. Pour out your concerns, your praises, your pain, your thanks, your anger, your discouragement, your confusion, your fear, your questions, whatever it is that you are thinking and feeling. He's always ready to listen and respond in love.

So even if you feel like this psalmist, say it:

Psalm 44:23-26

Wake up, Lord! Why are you sleeping?
Get up! Don't reject us forever.
Why do you hide from us?
Have you forgotten our pain and troubles?

We have been pushed down into the dirt;
we are flat on the ground.
Get up and help us.
Because of your love, save us.

Then, I hope you will find yourself saying Psalm 63:

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Let’s be a people that clings to our God in all situations, that remembers His goodness in the past (praise for Adam’s healing!), and recognizes that God, being love, always works things out in His love. Someone shared with me recently this insight: Even in our sorrow, we have reason to praise God for His love, for if we did not have the God-given ability to love our family members, we would not be experiencing our present sorrow.