I have talked in this book about the supreme importance of love, and how love makes the Christian life not only possible but also easy to live. In this chapter I would like to reflect on the love God has for you.

Lately I see a lot of people that worry about what God thinks of them. Not only that, but some of the people that have these worries seem convinced that they have let God down big time and that God is not happy with them at all.

My first conclusion when I observe this is that I am talking with a sincere person. The insincere “hope” that God understands them and that He knows that boys will be boys all the while their hearts are hardened.

So, sincere people want to please God. The problem comes in when they see Him like the servant in the parable saw Him, as a “hard man” who is never satisfied and always pushing for more.1 This is a legalistic point of view. What? God loves the sinners, but we Christians have to win His love on a daily basis?

That is a lie of the devil.

It is true that God wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength,2

But it is also true that God loves you with all His heart, all His soul, all His mind and all His strength. He is madly in love with you.3

Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” So, let me see. He rejoices, He sings and He rests in His love. He really, really loves you.

You might object, “Well, yeah God showed His love for us because while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.4 But now that we are His sons, He is much more demanding, isn’t He?”

Uhmmm…no!

“Behold, what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the sons of God…”5 “And we have known and believed the love that God feels for us. God is love; and he that lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”6 How many times are we called beloved in the Epistles? (pssst — 34 times and once he calls us “dearly beloved”7). Do a search in your Bible program for the word “beloved” in the Epistles. It will do you good.

If a human father were like what we imagine God to be like, (demanding, never satisfied, exacting) that earthly father would be a terrible father and his kids would likely have personal problems.

In Psalms 103:13. 14 we read, “As a father pities his children, so the LORD has pity on them that fear him. He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

A few years ago a friend told me, “My daughter is my best friend. I love her. Of course every once in a while I have to be a mother, but every time I have to, my desire is to go back to being friends as soon as possible.”

God enjoys you.8 Of course He has to carry out His fatherly duties every once in a while, but He does it with the happy expectation of relating to you again as a friend.

1- Matthew 25:14-30 2- Luke 10:27 3- John 3:16 4- Romans 5:8 5- 1 John 3:1 6- 1 John 4:16 7- 2 Corinthians 12:19 8- Song of Solomon chapter 2