1. God is love (1 John 4:8). What does it mean that God is love?
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For most people, love is a feeling that comes and goes. For God, love is who He is, which means that it's impossible for Him to ever not love His creation.
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God's love for us is not a response to anything we do or don't do. His love for us is always constant and always fervent simply because love is His very nature.
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Read Deuteronomy 7:6-8.
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God loves you just because He loves you (again, it's who He is) (Deut. 7:8a), and...
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God loves you because He promised He would (Deut. 7:8b).
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All in all, God loves us in order to bring glory to Himself—to show that His love is great and that He is a faithful Father.
2. God shows His love. What are the primary ways that God shows His love to us?
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God showed that He loves us by dying for us, to give us eternal life, while we were still His enemies (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-10).
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This is the greatest show of His love—His grace that came to us through Jesus. If nothing else, this is the one thing that proves that God's loves us.
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God shows that He loves us by giving us the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5, Acts 15:7-9 w/ Matthew 3:16-17).
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The Spirit, as we learn to hear His voice, brings us true relationship/communion with God(2 Corinthians 13:14).
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The Spirit is also the token of His promise to return from heaven and receive us to Himself, to be married to us forever.
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We only get to experience God's love, here, in a limited way. We will experience an unimaginably great love, of marriage to Christ, when we get to heaven. For now, we have the Spirit as the guarantee of His love, which will show fully when our wedding comes (Revelation 19:7).
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God shows that He loves us by correcting and disciplining us (Revelation 3:19, Hebrews 12:5-11). His
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Although it is painful, discipline from God helps us to become more obedient to Him, which is the best for us (Deut. 5:32-33).
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God shows He loves us by providing for our natural needs through the provisions of the earth, and by continuing to do so even when we sin (Matthew 5:44-45, Acts 14:16-17).
3. We can experience more of God's love in our lives.
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Experience more of God's love by learning and being obedient to His Word (Deut. 7:12-13, John 14:21, 15:9-10).
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God will not show love to disobedient behavior.
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Experience more of God's love by showing it to others. Be sacrificial with your time and resources to show care for others. (John 13:34-35, 15:10-13).