John 3:16 and Eph. 2:4-5
God’s love is what He demonstrates TO YOU and not something He demands FROM YOU. He demonstrated His love to us by giving His One and Only Begotten Son, Jesus. For God so loved the world that He gave!
Until we get a revelation in our hearts of God’s unconditional love, it will be hard to receive anything and everything that Jesus did for us on the cross. There is nothing we can do to get God to love us more or love us less. It is not based on our performance (whether good or bad) which is really the world’s kind of love. God’s love is based on His goodness. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! While we were doing our own thing, God sent Jesus to die, be buried and be raised from the dead to redeem us unto Himself (He purchased us with His own blood). That is the love of God. That is the price He paid to demonstrate His love to us. No strings attached – just unconditional love. You can’t be good enough to get Him to love you more or bad enough to get him to love you less. He loves you unconditionally!!!
It says in Ephesians 3:16-21 that when we know or understand the love of Christ, we will be filled with all of His fullness (all that He provided for us on the cross that we receive by faith). Some of the things He provided for us on the cross were He forgave us of our sins, healed all our sicknesses and diseases, delivered us from destruction, made us righteous by faith in His blood, gave us His peace, prospered us in our spirit, body, soul, relationships and finances, redeemed us from the curse, justified us as though we had never sinned, sanctified us (set us apart unto Himself), and on and on the list could go. The way we walk in all that He accomplished for us on the cross is by believing and receiving it by faith. The choice is ours!
Once we get a revelation in our hearts of this amazing love and are filled with His fullness, then that is when God is able to do what it says in Ephesians 3:19 – do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think according to the power that works in us. Experiencing God’s love equals the fullness of His power! So where there is lack in your life, there is a lack of the revelation of the love of God towards you.
Many times we let our circumstances stop us from receiving God’s love because we are more focused on our situation than His love and what He has already provided for us. This shuts up our faith. Galatians 5:6 tells us that it’s faith which works by love. If your faith isn’t working, then you need a deeper revelation of the love of God. Start praising Him because He inhabits the praises of His people – Psalm 22:3. Thank Him for the finished work of the cross. Thanksgiving always causes the grace of God to abound in your life.
Romans 8:32-39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Whatever comes our way – trials, afflictions, pains, sorrows, mistakes we’ve made, etc. – will never be able to separate us from the love of God. We are more than conquerors because of God’s love for us. That is comforting!
Remember that God only has good for His people. And He is not holding anything back from us. If we can get this in our hearts, we will see His love produce trust; that trust will produce obedience; that obedience will produce God’s love through us to the world and other believers. When that love is produced through us, it will produce and bring forth fruit, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others. In I Corinthians 13 it says faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love!