Grace Evangelical Free Church

by Pastor Kevin Reed
4714 13 Mile Rd, Rockford

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Who is our God?” We know that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We know that He is the God who created all that we see. We know that He is the God who is all powerful, and all knowing.  We know that he is bigger than we can comprehend, and more amazing than we can even imagine. But, who is He? If someone came up to you on the street and asked you who your God was, what would you say?

Most likely we would rattle off a list of God’s attributes to them. Things like, He is eternal (Ps. 90:2), immutable (Mal. 3:6), omnipotent (Jer. 32:17), omniscient (Ps. 147:5), omnipresent (Jer. 23:23), sovereign (Rom. 9:20,21), holy (Lev. 19:2), righteous (Ps. 11:7), and so on and so on. But do these lists really answer the question, “Who is our God?” Our God is a lot of things, and these lists certainly help us to get an idea of how amazing He is, but there is one attribute of our God that sums up who He is better than all the others. The answer to the question “Who is our God?” is simpler than we might think. Our God is love! 1 John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  Of all the things that our God is and all the things that our God does, there is one characteristic that defines him better than all the others, and that is love. He is by nature the very definition of the word love. It is impossible to understand what love is without understanding God.

God has shows us his love in three ways. Through His selflessness, His faithfulness, and His forgiveness. His love is seen through His selflessness as he sacrificed his one and only Son to pay for the sins of mankind (Rom. 5:8). His love is seen through His faithfulness as He has never broke his covenant with the nation of Israel even though the prophet Hosea accused them of “playing the whore” (Hosea 4:12; 9:1). God remained faithful and promises the same to us (2 Tim. 2:13).  His love is seen through His forgiveness, as He has promised that if we put our faith in Jesus Christ he will completely forgive us of all our transgressions (1 Jn. 1:9; Ps. 103:11,12). God has done all of this in order to have a relationship with us, the objects of His love!

The beautiful truth about God’s love is that He loves the whole world! (John 3:16).  There is no person too bad to be loved by God. There is nothing you could have done, no matter how shameful or despicable, that could make God stop loving you. He has already done everything possible to prove his love for you, and all He asks is that we live in His love. We need to stop believing the lies that God is just some big angry dude who loves to squash us and make us feel terrible because of all the ways we’ve offended him. Friends, the judgment and discipline of God are real things, and they have their place, but even His judgment and discipline are acted out in love! There is nothing God does that isn’t motivated by love. So please, say this out loud to yourself right now, “I am loved by God! He loves me for me!”

Live today in the love of your God, bask in his passionate pursuit of you, and by all means necessary, do everything in your power to convey that love to a world that desperately needs to see our God for who He is! He is love!