God’s Love & Public Relations

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  -A.W. Tozer-

If there was anyone who needed better PR in our world today, it would be God.

There has been an all-out negative campaign to spin (overt deceit to manipulate the public) to destroy God’s image. He has been sadly misrepresented and His holy words have been reduced to sound bites, often taken out of context, even by those who profess to believe in him.

For many God is an uncaring, cold, distant & angry Father who could care less about them.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

As a child one of the first songs I learned was Jesus Loves Me — “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” I loved singing this simple song but really didn’t fully grasp how much God truly loved me until I was much older.

Though ultimately God is incomprehensible (beyond what our finite mortal minds can grasp), He, in condescending love, has revealed and declared certain things to be true of Himself.

Only in the Living Word, and in the pages of the Written Word, can we get to know God.

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).

How does “the Bible tell me so” as the song says? (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Tim. 3:16)

The love of God is a grand reality. But only by the direction of the Spirit of the Lord can one come to know it. And then it’s not a question of our understanding what God may mean, but of believing what He’s said. In revealing Himself at all God has to condescend to our capacities, using language which must be understandable by us; but which can never fully reveal Himself because that which is finite can never explain the Infinite—Here’s how the Bible communicates God’s love for us:

• God’s love for the world came in the form of a gift of His one & only begotten Son. For those who receive & believe in this gift– eternal life with God is theirs (John 3:16; Eph. 2:8).

• God showed His love among us by sending his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him (1 John 4:9).

• God’s love isn’t manifested towards us because of anything we have ever felt or done—it’s not based on us loving Him first, because He beat us to it & loved us first (even while we were still sinners Christ died for us) (Titus 3:5; 1 John 4:19; Rom. 5:8; Eph. 2:4).

• God does not force His love to be accepted. He desires for us to choose Him and the precious gifts He has freely given to us. He grieves, like any loving parent, when we make bad choices and opt to believe the lies of the destroyer instead of Him ( John 8:44; 1 Pet. 5:8; Gen. 3:13; Deut. 30:19; Josh. 24:15; Prov. 1:29, 3:31, 12:26; 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14).

• Because God IS self-existent, eternal & everlasting–His love has no beginning or end—it’s immeasurable/infinite & everlasting (Rev. 1:8, Deut. 33:24, 1 Tim. 1:17, Ps. 90:2, Gen. 21:33; Eph. 3:18).

• Because God IS immutable, unchanging & almighty—His love is pure, true, faithful & powerful (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:17, 10:23, 13:8; Gen. 17:1; Ps. 91:1; Rev. 19:11).

• God IS patient, longsuffering & merciful (2 Pet. 3:9, 15; Num. 14:18; Ps. 86:15).

Don’t take my word for it. Look in the Bible & see for yourself. Faith comes by hearing & hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith so that you may be able to start to grasp the love of God in Christ & when you do it will affect everything else in your life (Eph. 3:17-19).

Love, In Christ, Laura