God’s Amazing Love

The God who created the universe, the most powerful being ever, loves you personally. Try to wrap your mind around that. He loves you — not just people in general, but you as a person. He cares about your life and wants to be part of it.

Even if you’ve spent your whole life running from God or done things you regret, He still loves you and wants to have a relationship with you.

These verses from the Bible remind us of God’s wonderful, extravagant, amazing, unstoppable and unconditional love.

1. God loves you so much that He sacrificed His Son for you.

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)

It’s hard to understand if you’re not a parent, but the love parents feel for their children is possibly the deepest love one human can have for another. If you talk to any loving parents, they probably cannot imagine any reason they would willingly let their child die.

They would much rather die than let their child die, because their child’s life is so much more important to them than their own lives.

But God loves you so much that He was willing to let His Son come to earth, be mistreated, and ultimately die for your sins so that you could become His child too. That is love that’s beyond understanding.

2. God loved you enough to die for you when you were still rebelling against Him.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

No matter how much you have messed up or how far you feel from God, He still loves you and wants a relationship with you.

Parents love their children, no matter how the children behave. If a child says, “I hate you!” it hurts. But loving parents will still love their children even when they say hurtful things or rebel. Even when you were still rebelling against God and saying, “I hate you,” He replied, “I love you” by choosing to die for you so that He could have a relationship with you forever.

You do not need to change or reach a better place before you come to God. He will help you change and get to a better place. All you need to do is accept His sacrifice and say yes to being in a relationship with God.

3. You could never earn or deserve the love God offers you.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Ephesians 2:4-5)

You do not deserve God’s love. No one does. But the amazing news is that He loves you anyway.

This is grace: God loves you so much that He paid the price to offer you the gift of eternal life. None of us deserves it based on our own actions or how religious we think we are. God’s love is a precious gift we should treasure.

4. God’s love is perfect and is a model for how to love.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Can you imagine being loved like this? It would change your life. The truth is this is an accurate description of God’s love for you.

Though this passage is often read at weddings, humans cannot love perfectly as God does because we are imperfect. But it makes sense that people strive to have their love for one another reflect these qualities.

Everyone needs this type of love, but if you expect it from another person, you will be let down. God is the only one who can love you perfectly. And when you have a relationship with God and experience His love, it empowers you to love others the way God loves you.

5. When you fully experience God’s love, you have nothing to fear.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

When you understand that God loves you no matter what, you no longer need to be afraid of your failings causing Him to love you less. If you could only truly know the depth of God’s love, you would have nothing to fear.

God already knows about the wrong things you’ve done as well as any you will do. He still chose to love you.

6. You are secure in your relationship with God: Nothing can separate you from God’s love.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35,37-39)

God is more powerful than anything in heaven or on earth. When you accept Jesus’ invitation to begin a relationship with God, you are secure in His love forever. There is nothing powerful enough to separate you from God’s love. Even when things are difficult or you feel far from God, it’s not because God stops loving you. The truth is that God will never stop loving you, no matter what you do.

7. God’s love is too great to fully understand.

[I pray that you will] be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:18-19)

God’s love is so great that we, as mere humans, cannot fully understand it. Humans’ love for one another often depends at least partly on the behavior of the person being loved. God’s love for us does not.

Do you long to be known and loved for who you are? God is the only one who can truly do that.

8. God’s love is a shield surrounding you and keeping you safe.

Let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You. For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield. (Psalm 5:11-2)

God’s love is so much more than the warm fuzzy feeling we often associate with the word love. His love is a powerful force, protecting and comforting us. Being in God’s love is a position of not just joy but also safety.

When you run to God for protection, He surrounds you with His shield of love. Think about that image for a while. Experience the security you have because God’s love surrounds you. Let His love flood your mind with a sense of peace and comfort.

9. God will not let you down because His love cannot fail.

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. (Psalm 36:5-7)

You have probably been hurt or betrayed by someone you love at some point in your life. Maybe you have experienced this more than once. Loving and trusting other people is risky. Once one person hurts you, it becomes harder to open up to others.

In contrast, God’s love is truly unconditional. He never fails you or betrays you. You do not need to hold back in your relationship with God, because He is totally trustworthy.

When you feel let down by people, read these verses and remember this: Though people may let you down, God never will.

10. God calls you His child.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (1 John 3:1)

You are a child of God. You may have heard this phrase many times before, but take some time to let it sink in. God, your Father, calls you His child.

When you begin a relationship with God, you don’t just become God’s friend, you become His child. God delights in you and wants the best for you. He wants to fill your life with joy and blessings.

11. God chose to adopt you because He loves you.

Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. (Ephesians 1:5)

You can have a child by accident, but you cannot adopt a child by accident. When you adopt a child, you choose to love, cherish and care for that child for life. When God adopts you, it’s not an accident. He chooses to love, cherish and care for you forever. He does it because He loves you and wants an eternal relationship with you.

God loves His children as a proud Father. If you have begun a relationship with Him, you are God’s child and He delights in you.

Take a minute to think about how the God of the entire universe loves you personally and chose you to be His child.

12. God’s love allows you to change and grow into the person He wants you to be.

The love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

God loves you just as you are, but He also loves you enough to not let you stay how you are. He wants to see you grow and change for the better. He sent Jesus to die for your sins so this would be possible. When you receive God’s forgiveness and accept God’s help, you can begin to work toward positive, lasting change.

This is another way God acts as a loving parent toward you. Parents love their kids as they are, not just as they want them to be one day. Even if they have a toddler that never listens and regularly has meltdowns in public or a teenager on a rebellious streak, parents still love their kids. At the same time, they want to see their children grow, learn and make good choices in life. Good parents love their kids enough to set limits, give them guidance and walk beside them through the good and the bad.

God does this for you. Once you choose to begin a relationship with God, you experience His forgiveness. This allows you to let go of negative aspects of your personal history and move toward positive change. You also receive His Holy Spirit, who guides you, gives you strength and is present with you every day.

13. God gives us the Holy Spirit because He wants us to be filled with His love.

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)

Have you ever had someone in your life you loved so much that you wanted to be with them all the time? God feels that way about you. Not only does God love you and want a relationship with you, but He wants to be present in every moment of your life.

When you begin a relationship with God, the Holy Spirit comes into your life. He is with you through the good and the bad. You can choose to ignore the Holy Spirit’s influence, but He will never leave you. He is always waiting for you to turn back and seek His comfort, wisdom and guidance.

The Holy Spirit can help you experience and have a deeper understanding of God’s love for you. His presence in your life means you are never on your own.

14. God disciplines you to help you learn — because He loves you.

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:11-12)

Though people often associate discipline with punishment, this verse shows us that God’s discipline is more about training and teaching. That is why Jesus’ followers were called disciples, or people who follow a teacher.

When you follow Jesus, you become His disciple. In the process of learning from Jesus, some lessons will be hard or even feel like punishment. But God is not out to punish you or hurt you. He is trying to teach you. Your choices have consequences, and God usually allows you to experience those consequences. Facing hard things and overcoming them is one of the best ways to learn.

Don’t let yourself get dragged down by hardships or isolate yourself from God and others. Instead, turn to God for help and discover what He is teaching you in the process.

15. God cares when you are suffering because He loves you.

I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities. (Psalm 31:7)

When things are hard, it can be easy to feel alone or like no one cares. But God cares. He cares about your sadness and hardships. He cares about your suffering. Why? Because God loves you.

Even when things seem hopeless, you can still hope in God. God does not promise He will fix our problems in the immediate sense. We will experience pain and suffering and sorrow. But He does promise that one day, everyone who has a relationship with Him will spend eternity in His presence, where suffering and sorrow will be gone forever.

But God is not just telling us, “It will get better later,” and leaving it at that. God hurts when you hurt because He loves you. He is always there to comfort you with His unfailing love as you bring your struggles to Him.

16. Even when things seem hopeless, you can hope in God because He loves You.

My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:20-23)

Even if you are in the midst of a difficult time or are grieving a great loss, there is still reason for hope. Everything around you may feel like it’s falling apart. Everything inside of you may feel like it’s falling apart. But God’s love and mercy will never fail you.

Ask God to give you hope because of His never-ending love. Ask Him to fill you with His peace that is more powerful than all of the hard things in your life. Every day is a new opportunity to receive God’s mercy and love.

17. God is loving. He does not want to harm you but to show you compassion.

Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:32-33)

When you experience difficult things or see suffering in the world, you may be tempted to think God dislikes you or that He enjoys seeing some people suffer. This is not true. God created a beautiful, perfect world, but people brought imperfection into it.

God is hurt when He sees how much people suffer. He has allowed people to make a mess of the world for a period of time, but He will not leave it that way forever. God will make things right again because He is compassionate and loving.

18. Jesus’ love is an example of what it means to sacrifice and serve others out of love.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. ... “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:3-5,34)

On His last night with His disciples before He was crucified, Jesus emphasized loving others. He demonstrated what loving others looks like by washing His disciples’ feet.

Washing someone’s dirty feet may seem like a gross enough task today, but during that day, people wore sandals and walked most places. So their feet were much, much dirtier. Washing feet was usually the job of a lowly servant.

Later, one of Jesus’ final commands to His disciples was to love each other as He had loved them.

This passage begins by telling us Jesus knew He had all of God’s authority and power and would soon return to God in heaven. But He showed His disciples He loved them by stepping down from His position of power to take on the role of a lowly servant.

Loving others often requires being willing to step down from your position of power and serve.

19. God is love, so our love for others points them to Him.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, 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 seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. (1 John 4:9-12)

When we love each other, it gives people a glimpse of God because God is love. It can be difficult for people to understand God, but when we love others in His name, they experience a taste of His love.

Sadly, sometimes Christians are known more for judgment than for love. If you want to help other people know who God is, you can share the message of God’s love and then help them experience it through your love for them.

20. Because God loves us so much, His love should overflow from us into others.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

God’s love should not stop with Him loving you, it should overflow into the lives of the people around you. This is the natural result of constantly experiencing God’s loving presence in the form of the Holy Spirit.

When you allow God’s love to grow in you, it will be like a plant that produces fruit. One of the fruits of God’s love is your increasing inclination and ability to love others. His Spirit also allows you to love with a love greater than you could have on your own.

Don’t keep the love of God to yourself; allow Him to use you to show His love to others.

—Faith Eng, cru.org