By Steve Hogan
~ A Saturday Morning Post #324 ~
What’s absolutely essential for every Christian is God’s love, which is explained in God’s word. As much as anything, it’s God’s love that has kept me going through all the years – and it’s the Psalms that talk most about His love. This book gives many examples of believers who help us know God’s love, and how it relates to our relationship with God, our purpose, and our spiritual growth. Let’s go over a number of these verses. (A full list of these verses is found in Article 57- The Eternal Love of God).
* “I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation” (Ps. 13:5}. To truly live, we must trust and depend on God’s love. And God shows His love to us by saving and rescuing us from sin, enemies, and our problems.
* “Show the wonder of Your great love, You who save by Your right hand” (Ps. 17:7). It’s good, it’s necessary that you pray and ask God to show you His love, and He will.
* “The king trusts in the Lord; through the unfailing love of the Most High, he will not be shaken” (Ps. 21:17). God’s perfect love drives out any fears. If you are afraid or worried, it’s because you don’t know the love that God has for you. 1 John 4:18
* “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Ps. 23:6). God’s love is following us, and this means that God is chasing after us, is pursuing us with love. There is no way we can escape, no way we can get away from the love that God has for us.
* “Your love is ever before me, and I will walk continually in Your truth” (Ps. 26:3). God’s love is always before you, and this means it’s right in front of you, it’s present. That His love is always with you, and never leaves you, is most comforting and encouraging.
* “The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him” (Ps. 32:10). God’s love is inescapable, it’s all around us, it affects every aspect of our life.
* “May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You” (Ps 33:22). We are to put our hope in God, we are to expect Him and look to Him to cause His love to rest on us and affect every part of every day of our lives.
* “How priceless is Your unfailing love” (Ps. 36:7). The love of God is precious, costly, extremely valuable, and it’s free, it doesn’t cost a thing. Just believe, just look to God.
* “Continue Your love to those who know you” (Ps 36:10). Only those who are saved, who know God, can really, truly, and personally know His continual love.
* “I do not conceal Your love and Your truth from the great assembly” (Ps. 40:10). The most valuable thing in the world is God’s love, and we must, we must tell others about it, and how it’s only through Jesus Christ that they too can experience it.
* “May Your love and Your truth always protect me” (Ps 40:11). Knowing God’s love and God’s truth is essential to being spiritually protected from sin, the devil, and deception.
* “Within your temple, O God, we meditate on Your unfailing love” (Ps. 48:9). It’s vital to regularly get time with God so you can think about, so you can consider His love. Only as God’s love is in your innermost being can you be a strong and loving Christian.
* “I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever” (Ps. 52:8). Trusting and depending on God’s love is central, is key to a Christian’s eternal life, in this age and the ages to come.
* “He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me; God sends His love and His faithfulness” (Ps 57:3). God’s love is evident when He delivers us from enemies and troubles. Unbeknownst to us is that God often uses angels. Psalm 34:7
* “Great is Your love, reaching to the heavens” (Ps 57:10). This metaphor about the heavens illustrates the greatness, the vastness, the enormity of God’s love for us.
* “Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You” (Ps. 63:3). God’s love is better, more needed, more nourishing, more satisfying than anything else in the world, and it results in us loving and worshiping God.
* “Great is Your love towards me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave” (Ps 86:13). The greatest example of love is that Jesus Christ died on a cross to pay for our sins, deliver us from death, and rescue us from hell. Romans 5:8
* “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to You” (Ps. 86:5). Knowing God and calling out to Him results in receiving an abundant, rich, and plentiful amount of love.
* “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever” (Ps. 89:1). Experiencing God’s great love will cause us to joyfully and eternally sing praises to Him.
* “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Ps. 90:14). This important prayer tells us that God’s love fully satisfies us, makes us spiritually content.
* “He has remembered His love and His faithfulness to the house of Israel, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps. 98:3). This speaks of God’s love for Israel in that God will save a remnant of Jewish people at Christ’s coming.
* “I will sing of Your love and justice, to You, O Lord, I will sing praise” (Ps. 101:1). We sing of God’s love, but we must also sing of His justice, and realize that the reason He can love us is because His justice was satisfied thought Christ. 1 Peter 3:18
* “The Lord is good and His love endures forever” (Ps. 100:5). God loves us during our life on earth, but we must remember that we will only fully know the depth and magnitude of His love when we are in heaven.
* “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him” (Ps. 103:11). Looking at the heavens, at the stars in the night, helps us to understand the greatness, the enormity of God’s love for us. But this is only for those who fear Him, who are humble, who are in awe of God.
* “From everlasting to everlasting, the Lords’ love is with those who fear Him” (Ps. 103:17). It’s hard to imagine the intimate, infinite, and eternal love that God has for those who fear and trust Him, but it’s definitely true.
* “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness” (Ps 115:1). One of the main reasons we should glorify and exalt God is because He greatly, wonderfully, and continually loves us.
* “May your unfailing love come to me, Your salvation according to Your promise” (Ps. 119:41). God’s love is seen when He promises and gives us victories, when He delivers us from our problems.
* “The earth is filled with your love, O Lord” (Ps. 119:64). God’s love is seen in the world around us, in a beautiful sunset, in a pretty flower, in the food we have, in the diversity and wonder of animal life, in being able to sing joyful songs, etc.
* “Preserve my life according to Your love, and I will obey the statutes of Your mouth” (Ps. 119:88). Only as we are revived and kept going by God’s love will we be able to obey God’s word, to keep His commands and fulfill His purposes.
* “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your love, O Lord, endures forever – do not abandon the works of Your hands” (Ps. 138:8). A vital connection exists between knowing God’s love, God doing His work in you, and God enabling you to fulfill His purposes.
* “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made” (Ps. 145:17). God is just and loving towards every single person in the world.
Many writers of end-times’ prophecy focus on the what, who, when, and where, on what will be happening, who it will be affecting, when it occurs, and where it takes place. As you know, I have written many posts and articles on these four areas. But it’s not just what, who, when, and where, it’s how. It’s how you should live.
Everyday, you need to know and be experiencing God’s love. I strongly encourage you to look at these and other verses that talk about the great love of God. And ask God to help you to depend on His love. When times are tough, you must know this love, and especially when the Antichrist comes and greatly persecutes the church.
“Dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” Jude 20-21
P.S. I can’t say it enough – you need to feed on and be encouraged by the love that God has for you. Here is a post on God’s love – “The Great and Wonderful Love of God”, and a article – “The Love of God.”