God is Love. God Loves You.

By Sally Kasten, Apple Valley Campus

I’m a Catholic girl.  That’s how I was born and raised.  It is a part of me that I will always embrace.  My uncle was a Priest and as I was growing up was asked yearly by him to consider joining the Convent (to no avail, obviously). I owe a lot to my Catholic upbringing.  It taught me reverence for Christ and the church, discipline, perseverance and the importance of handing down a legacy of faith. I wouldn’t change a thing about that season in my life.  In fact, it has been a part of God’s continually unfolding plan and perfect in His eyes and to that I stand in humbled awe of His great love for me. 

I attended the same church, Sacred Heart Catholic church in Elmwood, WI, from birth until I moved away to attend college.  Every Sunday for countless years I read these words that were written above the altar, “God is Love.  God Loves You.”  I’m sad to say that after seeing those same words dozens of times over the course of multiple years I never grasped the “God lesson”.

 You see, not only is God the embodiment of love, but he also has an unrelenting love for YOU!  A love that does not tire or grow weary, a love so powerful that it can only be authored by the very Creator who IS love and simply put, the enormity of His love is a concept that one should strive to grasp.

A basic objective as a follower of Jesus is to become more Christ like, but as our faith develops and matures, you learn quickly that we will always fall short, but God’s LOVE and grace are sufficient to sustain us in our efforts.

All of that said, I’d like to challenge you to look differently at a very common verse about love that has recently gained an enormous amount of consideration in my personal study time;

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

If our hearts desire is exude Christ like qualities, replace the word Love with YOUR name:

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Sally is patient, Sally is kind. Sally does not envy, Sally does not boast, Sally is not proud. Sally is not rude, Sally is not self-seeking, Sally is not easily angered, Sally keeps no record of wrongs. Sally does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Sally always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

As I venture on this continued journey of faith, my prayer is that you get a hold of how instrumental God’s love is for you and how His love alone is a free gift given to us by His grace.

In closing here is a verse of encouragement in your quest to examine the phrase “God is Love.  God Loves You.”

1 John 4:9-12

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.