In this study we are examining God’s love and how we can use that love as an anchor when the storms of life hit.

Someone once said we are all either living in a life storm, just exiting a life storm or just entering a life storm. Where are you today? Be assured God knows, cares and can enable you.

The next aspect of God’s love we will examine is the depth of His love for you.

Depth of God’s love is that of a father and His identity

 Who is the Father?

He is given to you and He is everlasting according to Isaiah 9:⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Psalm 68:⁵ A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

He is the Father of mercies according to 2 Corinthians 1:³Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

Psalms 103:¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

¹⁴ For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Where is the Father?

He is in Heaven according to Luke 11:⁸ Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

⁹ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

He is in believers according to Ephesians 4:⁶ One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

He is not far from unbelievers according to Acts 17:²⁷ That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

²⁸ For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

²⁹ Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

What does the Father do?

He adopts us into His family according to Romans 8:¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

¹⁵ For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

¹⁶ The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

¹⁷ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

He bestows love on us and calls us sons according to 1 John 3:¹ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

He chooses to receive you and be your Father according to 2 Corinthians 6: ¹⁷ Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

¹⁸ And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Some have known the love of an earthly father while some have never known the love of an earthly father. But God’s love is perfect. It’s everything a father’s love should be or could be.

The Father’s identity is love according to 1 John 4:⁸ He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

As your Father, God is intimately involved and concerned with the details of your life and daily circumstances.

Your Father provides- Matthew 6:⁷ But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

⁸ Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Your Father protects-Psalms 33:¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

¹⁹ To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

Your Father directs-Proverbs 3: ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

You Father corrects-Hebrews 12:⁵ And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

⁸ But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

⁹ Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

¹⁰ For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

¹¹ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

¹² Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

¹³ And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

The Love of God – Frederick N. Lehman, 1917

1. The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
   It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;
   The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
   His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.

Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.

2. When years of time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
   When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call,
   God’s love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong;
   Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—The saints’ and angels’ song.

1. Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
   Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;
   To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;
   Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an American insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.

Questions for Reflection

1) What does the love of God as your Father mean to you?

2) Where are you in your understanding of God as your Father?

3) How much time do you spend with your Father daily? Why?

Results of God’s love for you

You have everlasting life and no condemnation- John 3:¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

¹⁵ That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil

Condemnation = strong censure or reproof

You have evidence of the greatest love –

John 3:¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God

John 15:¹³ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

1 John 3:¹⁶ Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

You have an advocate – 1 John 2:¹ My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Advocate =one who speaks in defense and pleads on behalf of another; intercessor

You have complete propitiation for your sins- 1 John 2:² And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Propitiation =utter saisfaction

You can enable God’s love to be perfected in you – 1 John 2:⁵ But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Perfected = exactly fitting the purpose

What does God’s love mean to you?

Our focus – Hebrews 12:¹ Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God

Our challenge – Dearly Beloved,

Run with your eyes on Jesus alone!

Run in faith that Jesus loves you with an everlasting, unconditional love; has uniquely designed and created only one you; has a good plan for your life; runs with you; and will        accomplish His purposes for you and through you!

Run in His strength alone!

Run being yoked to Emmanuel!

Run with your eyes on the prize!

Run with your focus on His mission: to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ!

Run with the desire to finish strong!

Run with the desire to finish with your lamp burning!

Run to obtain an incorruptible crown!

Run with the expectation of being in His physical presence when together you cross your finish line!

Run to His glory alone!

Run and keep on running!

Coach Patti