Steve Gaines

By Steve Gaines, Ph. D.

Heart-shaped candy boxes line the store aisles, and greeting card racks overflow with Valentines. That tells me it must be February! In a few days many of us will give special tokens of love to those closest to us.

God is the author of true love. Jeremiah 31:3 says that He loves us with an everlasting love. That love is unconditional; we don’t deserve it and we can’t earn it. Yet God loves us graciously and mercifully.

God’s Love is Sovereign. Before we chose to love God, He loved us first. First John 4:10 says that He initiates the love relationship. True love cannot be coerced, however, so we must respond willingly.

God’s Love is Everlasting. There has never been a time when God did not love you. Before you were saved, while you were still in your sin, God loved you and proved it through Christ’s atoning sacrifice (Romans 5:8). Regardless of what you do, or what happens in your life, God will love you forever.

God’s Love is Gentle. Jeremiah 31:3 says that God draws us with loving kindness, like a mother holding her baby gently to her chest. God loves us tenderly. He knows our inherent limitations and our tendency toward sin. Though we deserve eternal punishment in hell, God deals with us affectionately and kindly.

Won’t you thank God today for loving you in spite of your sin and selfishness? Just think—He loved you first! He wants to have intimate fellowship with you. No Valentine card can deliver the kind of unfailing love God has promised to you. And no gift can compare with what He gave for you—His Son’s life on the Cross. God is love!