Apicontent

Day 3

God is love. (1 John 4:8, 16) 

“God is love.” 

But what is love? 

The word for “love” used in this Scripture is translated agape in the original Greek. As distinct from the other Greek words often translated “love” in English, agape, is unselfish, self-giving, generous and kind. It is a pure love that gives expecting absolutely nothing in return. Its focus is on what is truly and deeply best for the intended receiver. Agape is gentle, compassionate, and empathetic, yet at the same time violently opposed to anything and everything that harms the beloved. Agape is fiercely against sin because sin destroys us—the people of its affection. 

This is who God is. He does not love us because we are a certain race, age, sex, or educational level. He does not love us because we hold certain beliefs, are part of a certain religious group, or behave in certain ways. He accepts us as we are and cares for us despite our faults. The horrible messes we make for ourselves do not put Him off. He loves us simply because agape is His nature. 

“God is love.” It isn’t just that God loves or that God is loving. Agape has its origin and essence in God. God is agape. 

And because God is agape, He is Three in One. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three unique beings in complete agreement and union with each other. God lives together in community. He is, and always will be, a relational and loving God. Just like in a family, the Trinity’s love for each other and for creation is expressed through relationship. Self-giving, other-centered agape is the core of the Trinity. 

Some religions have only one God who exists alone; others have many deities who are in constant conflict or competition. But the fellowship of the Trinity—the everlasting life of God—is one of mutual enjoyment and delight, mutual affection and adoration. 

Think about it. How could a solitary being love? A deity who exists alone cannot love … because love by definition requires something or someone to love. Love longs for and demands someone to give itself to. Agape shares itself in relationship. 

From eternity past, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have been in community—in relationship. They have loved each other. If God were not the Trinity, He could not be love.

The Trinity shares a togetherness that is so pure, so peaceful, so full of joy and freedom that our minds cannot grasp it. God’s shared life of love is the foundation of creation and of our ongoing part in it. The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are passionate that you and I be drawn into Their life of love. 

God the Father sent His Son. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The Son came willingly to earth to show us the Father’s heart and to make a way for us to live again in unity with God. Jesus said, “As the Father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in My love” (John 15:9). Today the Holy Spirit works in you and me to make God’s love real to us so that we can experience it and share it with others. “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). 

The Father loves. Jesus loves. The Spirit loves. God is agape. 

And He adores you exactly as you are right now. He doesn’t just agape you the way you want to be. He doesn’t just love the perfect-looking you that sits up straight in church. Agape is for you—the you that you wish didn’t exist—struggling, fearful, unbelieving you. He loves the real, total package of you—just as you are right now without promise of change. 

Ponder for a Moment 

Is there some part of the way you view God that doesn’t seem to fit with agape? If so, describe that view. 

If agape were a picture, what would it look like to you? Describe that picture as you see yourself in it. 

Imagine believing that God values, treasures and adores you, just as you are right now, without expectation of change. Describe what you feel. 

Day 4

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…. Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good. (Genesis 1:26–27, 31) 

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit worked together to create humankind. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image….” We were created in the likeness of God. Animals weren’t created in God’s image. Angels weren’t created in God’s image. But we are! 

We are made in the likeness of God. We are made to call the same things “good”—laughter, friendship, kindness. We are made to hate the same evils—cheating, hunger, violence. God is the creator of life; He made the universe and all it contains. And so we too create; we build houses, weave tapestries, paint pictures, and plant gardens. 

God made you and me in His image to enjoy the same life of fellowship the Trinity enjoys. We were created to live in relationship with God—in the Trinity’s shared enjoyment and delight, affection and adoration. We were fashioned by a God of love, in an act of love, to be recipients of love and to be streams of love flowing back to God and out to our fellow human beings. We were made for loving relationships with God, self, others, and creation. 

In order to live life as God intends, He fashioned us to be of three parts; we are spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit is the resting place for God’s Spirit. Our soul defines our nature; it is our mind, will, and emotions that make up our unique self. Our body is the physical covering for the spirit and soul within. 

When spirit, soul, and body are in agreement with God, the rulership He gave us to exercise on earth expresses His nature. God created humanity to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth.” He intends that we exercise the dominion He entrusted to us by living in agreement with Him—in His relational lovingkindness. 

In God’s plan, our spirit becomes a resting place for His Spirit, and our mind, will, and emotions are transformed by His Spirit so that our body radiates the nature of God. In this way, the life and love of God is like a spring bubbling up within us, restoring our soul as it flows out of us as a refreshing stream. 

After completing each day of creation, “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25). But on the day He created Adam, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” 

What did God see that caused Him to call creation, after it was completed with humanity, not just “good,” but “very good?” He saw someone like Himself with whom He could have a relationship. Now He could share Himself with beings who had the capacity to understand Him—to resonate with Him. He could give Himself to someone who could appreciate Him and who could, of their own choice, love Him back. And those people could love others and care for creation by sharing His love. Now agape could expand itself; God could give away His self-giving love. 

God loves you with the very same everlasting love He shares within Himself. You were made to know and enjoy the same relationships of total honesty, adoration and delight the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share. Your soul needs laughter, friendship, kindness. You were designed to be cherished and valued. 

And God cherishes and values you! God calls you “very good.” He made you to thrive in relationship with Him. You were made for life in God’s love. 

Ponder for a Moment 

What does it mean to you personally that you were made in God’s image? 

How does it make you feel to be called the “very good” of God’s creation? 

Day 5

And they [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8) 

In the beginning, God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and supplied all their needs for life. Food and shelter were theirs in abundance. There was no sin—no separation from God. An atmosphere of peace, freedom, and joyful belonging permeated all of life. The couple lived in unity with God, with themselves, and with creation. In unbroken relationship, God walked with them. 

Satan hated the life-giving, love-giving fellowship the couple enjoyed with God, so he plotted to sever it. 

God had warned Adam not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That fruit wasn’t good for people. So God set a boundary to keep His precious creation safe. Like a mother warning her child not to eat something poisonous, God warned Adam of the tragic outcome of eating the fruit. “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17). 

But Satan tempted Eve. In the form of a serpent, he came to her: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). 

Eve believed the serpent’s lies and ate the fruit. She gave some to Adam and he ate too. 

Immediately upon eating the fruit, the couple’s relationship with God changed. Before they had known only good, but now their “opened” eyes—their newfound knowledge of good and evil— caused them to realize the evil they had done. Now they knew God was holy and good, and that He hated sin. So they hid from Him. 

Yet, like a father looking for his lost children, God went searching for Adam and Eve. “Where are you?” He called. 

Adam answered, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid …” (Genesis 3:9–10). 

“Afraid”? Where did that fear come from? It didn’t come from God. He had always provided for them; He delighted in walking with them in the cool of the garden. God had not changed; He had not rejected them.

He loved them before they ate the fruit and He loved them after they ate the fruit. 

But the couple had sinned and their view of God was distorted. Their newly “opened” eyes, blinded by the knowledge of good and evil, couldn’t see God’s lovingkindness. Instead, fearing God’s punishment for their sin, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God … and His love. 

And in their fall, the entire human race fell too. Connection was broken. No longer could humanity live in caring, compassionate, life-giving relationship with God, themselves, and creation. 

For thousands of years, throughout Old Testament times, God would be with His people as they struggled to find a way back to the distant and punishing God they saw with their “opened” eyes. Even though they were oblivious to His true nature, God loved them and longed to be with them. So like a kind father might care for his disabled child, God cared for them in a way they could accept. He gave them good laws to follow … but they couldn’t obey. He sustained them … but they failed to see Him as their provider. 

Yet, through it all, the Father had a plan of redemption. When the time was right, through His Son, He would make a way to repair our broken relationship so we could live again in His love. 

Ponder for a Moment 

What do you imagine Adam and Eve felt and experienced in the Garden before the fall? 

Are you willing to consider the possibility that, even if you have been a Christian for a long time, you might not be seeing God as He really is? 

In what ways might you personally be hiding from God? 

Day 6

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) 

God longs to be with us. His heart desires intimacy. He wants us to live in the wholeness and fulfillment that life with Him provides. But, we as human beings couldn’t repair the broken relationship. We couldn’t work our way back. God had to do it; He made a way to bring us back into the life of love for which we were created. 

God the Father loves the world. He doesn’t just love a perfect world; He loves the real world. He cherished the world as He created it. He cherished the world as it existed 2,000 years ago. And He cherishes the world today despite its pollution and disease, famines and wars, and all forms of hatred and denial of Him. The Father showed His passion for the world by planning a way for us—as real, messed-up people in a real, messed-up world—to enter into His life. 

The Father didn’t leave the working out of His plan to the human race to accomplish. He didn’t lower a ladder into the pit we were in and shout down, “I want you with Me. Here are the steps to follow: Obey these commands. Pray these prayers. Climb the rungs. I’m waiting in heaven for you. Come on. You can do it.” No. God didn’t do that. We can’t save ourselves. Climbing religious ladders doesn’t work. (The Pharisees climbed the ladder they had built for themselves, but the top of that ladder ended in death-producing religious pride, not in life-giving relationship with God.) 

God the Father loved the world so much that He gave His only Son; Jesus willingly stepped down into the sin and confusion of this world—into the mess of our humanity—to save us. God the Father gave God the Son in human form to accomplish for us what only God could accomplish. As a man, Jesus entered our world. He joined Himself to our blind, diseased, sinful human flesh. 

God the Son left the absolute perfection of heaven and stepped down the ladder into our mess and confusion. As a man, Jesus took the sin of the world—the sin of every person who will ever live— your sin and mine—upon Himself. In the blindness of our fallen nature, God the Son became one with us. In unity with us, He carried our sins to the cross and died the death our sin deserved. 

And God’s goodness didn’t stop there. As one with us, Jesus carried us up the ladder that we couldn’t climb. He took us from the pit of our depravity, held us close and carried us up the ladder into the eternal life of God. In Christ, we enter into the relationship Jesus shares with His Father. Jesus is the only way we can live the life the Father planned for us from the beginning of creation. 

Who can fathom the depths of humanity’s sin and the price Jesus paid to rid us of it? Who can fathom the height to which Jesus lifted humanity in bringing us home to life in God’s love?

Jesus is the way of salvation! He is the way of eternal life! Believing in Jesus and what He has accomplished sets us free from ceaseless striving to make ourselves acceptable. In Christ, we are free to live in the loving relationships with God and others that our soul craves. 

Christianity was never meant to be a religion with traditions and laws to follow. Christianity is knowing Christ. It is believing in Him and being connected to the reality of what He has accomplished. Christianity is living in relationship with God—in everlasting life. 

There are no pre-qualifying conditions for this life: nothing you have done or believed in the past excludes you. God longs to share Himself with you. With open arms, He welcomes all who come. 

Ponder for a Moment 

What are the deepest desires of your heart? 

What steps might you have attempted in order to satisfy those desires? 

Sit for a while and reflect on the picture of Jesus carrying you up the ladder into eternal life in the love of God. Record your thoughts, images or feelings. 

Day 7

God is love. (1 John 4:8, 16) 

We had this verse a few days ago, but since it is twice repeated in Scripture, it seemed good to repeat it here as well. 

How did I come to write 40 Days of God’s Love? How did I begin to realize God was not like I had grown up thinking that He was? 

Let me tell you my story. 

I grew up in a Christian home. In Sunday school we sang, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” When I was 16, I accepted Jesus into my heart. I believed “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). On some level I knew that God loved me. But I thought He somehow loved me less when I did “bad” things and more when I did “good” things. 

So I tried to do more and more “good” things. I earned a Ph. D. in Developmental Psychology with the intent of helping poor, forgotten children. My hope was that my husband (a pediatrician) and I, together with our children, could establish Christian orphanages in developing countries. I wanted to share Jesus with others. 

But just after our fourth child was born, at age 32, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I couldn’t walk in a straight line. My whole body felt weak and tingly. My eyes wouldn’t focus. All my plans of helping orphans faded. I couldn’t even care for our own children. My sister and her family moved from 2,000 miles away to help us. Day after day I lay on the couch trying to be strong and hide my tears. What was happening to me? “God, You said, ‘All things work together for good to those who love you….’ God, you promised! But this isn’t good!” 

This time in my life was horribly difficult, not only because of the physical symptoms, but because of my distorted view of God. I felt deserving of love only as I did good things and I couldn’t do anything. 

Month after month as I lay on the couch, feeling worthless and unloved, there grew in me a desperate longing to know God. I didn’t understand the longing. I thought I knew God; I had accepted Christ, gone to church and lived a moral “Christian” life. But the desire grew and grew. Like a person dying of thirst in the desert craves water, I had to know God. 

Then one night, about three years after the diagnosis, I went to hear a guest speaker at church. After the service, I made my way to the front. “What do you want?” the visiting pastor asked me. And I sobbed out, “I just want God.” 

“Lift up your hands and say I surrender all,” he said. A huge resistance came over me. “What about my family?” I thought. “What about the ‘good’ I want to do?” But so much had been stripped away already. So I lifted up my hands and said, “I surrender all.” 

In that moment, from the cross at the front of the church—from the very center where the horizontal and vertical beams meet—pure love cascaded down upon me. It came in drops of liquid light that moved in flowing waves. I couldn’t stand up. As I lay on the floor, wave after wave of love poured down directly into my heart. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. 

For hours I lay there. Pure love just kept coming. I wasn’t reprimanded for past failings. I wasn’t healed from Multiple Sclerosis. I wasn’t given direction about something “good” to do. I’d said, “I just want God” and I got love. 

That night 25 years ago changed my life in ways too deep for words. “God is love.” He doesn’t love me because I am a human doing; He loves me because I am a human being. He loves me when I am sick. He loves me when I can’t do anything. He loves me in my partial belief. He love(s) me when I sin. 

Ponder for a Moment 

In what ways might you be thinking that God’s love for you is somehow related to what you do or don’t do? 

Describe an instance in your life when you knew you were loved.

Day 8

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:18) 

In heaven, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit live together in perfect harmony. The Trinity desires that this same perfect togetherness—this same life in the love of God— be known to each and every one of us. 

But how could people understand this? How could we begin to comprehend God’s heavenly love? How could we know His feelings toward us? How could God communicate Himself to us? After the fall, people were cut off from God; their blind eyes couldn’t see Him as He really was. 

Imagine yourself watching an ant colony. The ants scurry around unaware of your presence. Some are searching for food. Others are digging a nest. Then you notice that a nearby stream is flooding and the colony is in danger of being destroyed. You see a better nesting site with abundant food just a few paces up the hill and out of danger from the waters. So you call down to the ants, “Run to higher ground. Come live in a safe place.” But they continue working on the old nesting site. You bend down and try to redirect their path with a stick. But the ants swarm about in confusion as if you are trying to hurt them. 

What can you do to help them? What if you became an ant yourself and communicated with them in a way they understood? 

In this sense, God the Son willingly became an ant for us. 

In Jesus, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Jesus is the Word; He is the essence of communication. And what is He communicating? What is Jesus expressing? 

Jesus is expressing God, who is love. As a man with a nature and feelings like ours, Jesus cared for people with loving-kindness expressed in actions and words we can understand. The Son of God came to share God with us in tangible, human ways we can see, feel and relate to. 

In Jesus’ life on earth, He communicated to us who God the Father really is. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Hebrews 1:3 describes Jesus as being “the brightness of His [the Father’s] glory and the expressed image of His person.” When you see Jesus, you are seeing God in human form. The actions and words that pour forth from Jesus show us the Father’s heart.

In Jesus, we see God walking around in the time and space of earth; we see God as Someone we can relate to. He is not angry at us. He is not waiting to punish us for our failures or unbelief. He does not hold Himself apart as holy or superior. Rather, He is welcoming to those rejected by society and actually enjoys being with common people. He is up-close, personal, and intimately concerned with your physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. 

In Christ, the God we perceived as powerful and punishing, high and holy, became a helpless baby born to an unwed mother in a filthy animal shed. As a man, Jesus reached out to the poor, the sick, and those shunned by society. He befriended prostitutes and adulterers. He welcomed little children. He turned aside to talk to tax collectors, thieves, and those crazed by demons. And to the scribes and Pharisees who thought they understood God, He spoke words of truth that cut to the heart and showed them how lost they too really were … so they also could be made whole. 

With the purpose of bringing God’s life to all, Jesus showed us the greatest love the world will ever know. The “friend of sinners” (Luke 7:34) died on the cross for us. 

This is God in our language; this is love in a language you and I can understand. 

Ponder for a Moment 

Why do you think Jesus was willing to come to earth as a man? 

How would you communicate to someone who didn’t understand your language that you valued and treasured them? 

Day 9

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. (Matthew 9:35–36) 

When we see Jesus going about His life on earth, we see the Father’s compassion. Jesus said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son does in like manner” (John 5:19). When we see Jesus, we see God dressed in the flesh and blood of a man; we see love flowing out of a human like ourselves. 

The miracles Jesus did demonstrate the amazing power of God. Spectacular events—like opening blind eyes, healing lepers, and raising the dead—are eye-catching. But Jesus didn’t do miracles to attract attention or draw crowds. Compassion compelled Jesus to act as He did. Behind every miracle, sensational as it may have been, was the quiet, steadfast, uncompromising, unconditional love of God. 

One day a crowd was following Jesus as He walked to Jericho. Two poor, blind beggars were sitting in the dust beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was coming, they began calling out “Have mercy on us.” Those in the crowd rebuked them. They felt Jesus had more important things to do then pay attention to these worthless men. 

But still the men cried out. “Have mercy on us O Lord.” And Jesus’ heart of mercy went out to them. He stopped and bent down. 

“‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, that our eyes may be opened.’ So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him” (Matthew 20:32–34). 

The blind beggars weren’t made to see in a blast of holy lightening from heaven. They received their sight when Jesus disregarded the crowd’s rebuke, paused in His journey, stooped down beside the dusty road and touched their blind eyes. 

Feel the compassion behind that touch. 

On another occasion, Jesus was preaching and casting out demons when a man with leprosy came to Him. In Jesus’ day, lepers were outcast from families and society. People feared to touch or associate with them for fear of getting the flesh-eating disease.

“A leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, you can make me clean.’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him” (Mark 1:40–42). 

Leprosy didn’t stop the love of God. Jesus stretched out His hand. 

Feel the compassion behind that touch. 

Yet another time, Jesus and some of His disciples were entering a city when a funeral procession was leaving through the gate. The dead man was the only son of a widow. Without a husband or a son, women in that culture had no respect or means of support. It was like the woman’s life too was ending with the death of her treasured only son. He had been everything to her and he was gone. And so she wept. Jesus saw the woman’s deep pain and His heart went out to her. 

“When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then He came and touched the coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ So he who was dead sat up and began to speak” (Luke 7:13–15). 

Jesus felt the widow’s grief. God knew her pain. His only Son too would die. And so, God reached down through Jesus’ hands. 

Feel the compassion behind that touch. 

Ponder for a Moment 

Pretend you have no preconceived ideas about God and you are seeing Him for the first time in these events. Describe God as you see Him in these situations. 

Just as it was over 2,000 years ago, Jesus’ touch of compassion is here for you now. What do you need compassion for today? 

Day 10

The LORD has appeared of old to me saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3) 

With lovingkindness, God draws us to Himself. As amazing as it sounds, God who created the universe wants to be with you. Regardless of your position in life, your religion, or your sins, you—exactly as you are right now—are cherished by God. 

You are not a project to God. His goal is not to have you act certain ways or believe certain doctrines. God doesn’t just love you and put up with you; He actually likes you and delights in being with you. 

Each member of the Trinity works together, in love, to draw us into love. 

God the Father had a plan to bring us back into His family. That plan involved sending His Son. “In this the love of God was manifest toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). 

God the Son came to earth as fully God and fully man to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus stepped down from heaven and took our sin upon Himself. Then He died on the cross to free us forever from that sin. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). 

Today God the Spirit works in you and me to reveal the Son’s complete accomplishment of the Father’s plan. The Holy Spirit wants you to know that Jesus has done everything required to bring you back into unity with God. He makes agape love real in living experience. “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). 

Deep in the core of each of us is a desperate longing to be loved. Our souls were created to be adored and treasured in intimate, honest relationships. God designed the human race to grow and flourish in union with Him. Like two magnets when they are properly aligned attract each other, God’s love pulls us in and holds us close in life-giving, soul-satisfying union. 

But, if we are blind to God’s lovingkindness, we will resist Him. No one wants to be with someone who they think is aloof and distant or demanding and fault-finding. We avoid such people. And if we wrongly believe God to be this way, we will avoid Him too. 

Like two magnets when they are misaligned push each other apart, our misunderstanding of God keeps us from Him.

But in Jesus, we hear God welcoming us. Standing on a hill above the holy city, Jesus cried out, “Oh Jerusalem…. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). 

Can you hear the passion in His voice? Can you feel His longing? Think of a mother hen spreading her wings wide to cover and protect her brood of little chicks. Jesus doesn’t want you trying to survive on your own. He wants you coming to Him, resting in the security and strength of His arms and knowing that you are accepted. 

Jesus doesn’t point accusing fingers. He doesn’t clench angry fists. His arms are not folded tight across His chest; they are spread wide in welcome. He wants you. 

Wherever you are today, God is calling you. “Come to Me. Lay down the burden of your do’s and don’ts. Lay down your efforts to make yourself acceptable. Give up the hurtful, untrue thoughts you hold about yourself and about Me. Please, I’m here for you. I desire you. Come and rest in My love.” 

Ponder for a Moment 

What do you feel when you hear God’s words, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you”? 

How might your life have been different if you had known from early on that you were loved and valued, treasured, and adored? 

How might your life be different going forward if you embrace the truth of God’s love for you?

Day 11

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4) 

“The goodness of God leads you to repentance.” Another translation reads: “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance” (NIV). God’s nature of lovingkindness makes a way for repentance. 

But what is repentance? What is it that knowing God’s goodness and kindness leads us toward? 

Repentance does not mean beating yourself up and feeling guilty because you have done something wrong. It is not confessing your sins to a priest or kneeling in guilt-ridden prayer. Repentance may conjure up images of an angry father shouting, “Say you are sorry … or else,” but this image springs from an incorrect understanding of repentance … and of God. 

The Greek word for repentance is metanola. Metanola refers to a change of mind from confusion to clarity. Repentance indicates a radical reorientation—a paradigm shift—in the way we think of God. It implies a true change of heart resulting in a wiser view. 

John the Baptist bridged the gap between the law-based system of the Old Testament—the “Old Covenant”—and the grace-based system of the New Testament—the “New Covenant.” He came preaching, “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Luke 3:3). God was about to show humanity His stunning goodness, and a completely new mindset was necessary to grasp it. 

John announced Jesus’ arrival, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). He was saying, “Change your mind. God in heaven is drawing near. Get ready to know God as you have not known Him before.” 

Seeing God’s kindness in Jesus Christ changes our mind about who God is … and about who we are. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. 

How did we get into the position of seeing God incorrectly in the first place? Why is it so difficult for us to understand God is agape? 

Our problem is with the “opened” eyes we inherited when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Before the fall, the first couple had only known God’s goodness, acceptance and care for them. But after eating the forbidden fruit, their diseased eyes saw life through the veil good and evil; they saw that God was good, pure and right … and they were not. They had done evil and holy God hated evil. 

In their darkened minds, the only way back was to try and win God’s acceptance by following rules to make themselves good. But even when God Himself gave His laws to follow (the Ten Commandments), people couldn’t obey; the law-based system didn’t work. 

Throughout the ages since the fall, people have used various religions (including Christianity), each with its own set of laws and moral codes, to get us back to the God we see with our “opened” eyes. 

But God wants us to see Him as He really is: holy and hating sin, but loving us in spite of it. 

And so, we are called to repent—to change our minds about Him—to see the goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

When you know God is good, there is no need to hide from Him. In Christ, you do not need to fear that God will abandon you because of your sins. You do not have to punish yourself or try in your own strength to fix the bad side of yourself. You need not live with the stress and anxiety of trying to be “good” enough to satisfy your mind’s warped view of God. 

Truly, “the goodness of God leads you to repentance.” Jesus came to open our eyes to who God really is … so our minds would be changed and we could live in the freedom of knowing His love. 

Ponder for a Moment 

Regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof, in what ways might you be relying on good works or obedience to laws to make yourself right? 

Consider how God may be calling you to repentance, not so much for moral failure or breaking the law, but for a change of mind in the way you think of Him. 

Day 12

But when he [the prodigal son] was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:20–24) 

Stories have a way of sneaking past our defenses. We hear the story, something within us resonates with it, and then we realize it is speaking to us. Jesus told this story to open our eyes to the truth of how our Father feels about us. 

A father had two sons. The older son worked hard on his father’s farm and followed the rules. The younger son did not. He wanted to do his own thing. So he asked his father for his inheritance, went to a far-away place and squandered all that his father had given him. Until … he ended up feeding pigs and eating their food to stay alive. 

Then the prodigal son came to his senses and realized that even his father’s servants were better off than he. So he decided to go home. Along the way, he thought of what he might say to appease his father. He would admit his sin. He would forfeit his sonship. He would ask only to be a servant in his father’s house. 

As the son neared home, the father saw him coming! He ran to meet his son, flung his arms around him and kissed him. Can you see the father running on his tottery, old legs? Can you see the joyful tears streaming down his cheeks? 

The father didn’t think about what his son had done; that the money was squandered, that his heart had been torn with grief, that the prodigal had sinned. The father didn’t bargain with his son: “You are welcomed home if.…” He was simply overjoyed at his return. And so he had the servants bring fine clothes to replace his son’s tattered rags. This was cause for celebration. “My son was dead and is alive again.” 

“My son.” Can you hear the father’s adoration? “My precious son is alive!” Relationship with a lost family is restored! 

The older, responsible son was working in his father’s fields. But when he arrived home and heard that a party was being given for his younger brother, he was mad. The thought of welcoming home this sinner, this failure, this lazy good-for-nothing made him angry. For all these years, he had done right. It was he who deserved a party. 

The father reassured his older son of his position in the family and invited him to join the celebration. Again his words are laced with love. “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” 

But the older son viewed his father’s actions toward his brother with disdain. His father’s heartwarming welcome of this prodigal wasn’t fair. His sinful, lazy brother had done nothing to earn such treatment. He was wiser than such nonsense. He was better than that—above forgiveness, above mercy, above his father’s grace, above the joy of reunion. 

The question is not: Does the father love his sons? Clearly, he loves both. 

The critical question is: Will the sons accept their father’s undeserved, unconditional love? 

You and I, along with every human being on the planet, are cherished by God. But we each have a choice as to how we respond. That choice doesn’t affect the Father’s love for us, but it does have a monumental impact on our lives. 

Ponder for a Moment 

Where are you in this story? Which son are you? In what ways might you be a combination of the two? 

Think of a time when someone was overjoyed to see you. What did their joy tell you about how they felt about you?