God loves me. On a practical level, what does that look like?

dysert · Feb 5, 2018

Of course, that begs the question of what does it mean to "handle" something. I'm sure there have been Christians who have committed suicide. Seems that they faced something they couldn't handle.

Brian Mcnamee · Feb 5, 2018

The love of God is offered to all who will receive it and includes meeting all of our greatest needs. We are eternal beings made in the image of God and have an eternal soul. We are all sinners and guilty before a perfect and holy God. The love of God for us was demonstrated on the cross as payment for our sins and is a gift of eternal life. Having our debt discharged brings peace with God and brings the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We obtain an eternal adoption and are declared righteous with a assurance that we will be raised free from the corruption we struggle now with. We have now a purpose in life much greater than seeking after our own endeavors and that is sharing the reconciliation of the gospel to others. This life our greatest needs are not temporal and when you seek after the spiritual the temporal side changes as your goals and desires are not going to be self serving. The peace with God is the foundation that builds the character of God in our lives. I have a joy that is unshakable in Christ and security that even death cannot shake. Being loved and accepted by God through obtaining mercy is why we were created. Life is a path that tests us and tries our faith and provides opportunities to serve the LORD.

Oldmantook · Feb 5, 2018

We tend to attach our sentimental feelings of love and frame that as our relationship with God. In itself, that's not wrong but does that fit that biblical definition of love for God and God's love for us?
"The one having My commandments and keeping them, he is the one loving Me. Now the one loving Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him, and will show Myself to him." John 14:21
A believer's abiding, obedient relationship to God is the basis for a loving relationship with God.

DaGeo · Feb 5, 2018

Any theological phrase or idea becomes shallow if it abandons its theological roots. The ever ubiquitous "God loves you/me" chritianese cliche seems to have divorced itself from its exegetical roots thus rendering itself meaningless. Through the years folks have further confused the phrases' meaning by asserting their own humanist ideas on to it. Nevertheless, and ultimately, God has the say when it comes to defining his love. He also has the say on how that love is revealed--and he has done exactly that throughout the pages of his written revelation. When folks speak about God's love they never seem to refer to God's painful disciplining of the sons whom he loves! Also, I hardly hear about God's love for Job through those horrible trials Job endured. In addition to all the suffering, as if all that weee not enough, God verbally rakes Job over the coals! God's love doesn't always involve excruciating discipline but when Christians ignore theology they don't like the entire faith is thrown into confusion. We do ourselves no favors when we ignore this very import biblical doctrine

Grip Docility · Feb 5, 2018

God Loves you so much that He gave you free will to choose ye this day and died for you to ensure all of your guilt was born upon Him for all abuse of that free will that occurs in your life.

God loves you so much that He’s no “helicopter” Father.

There’s no way to live life on this earth without learning, growing and discovering new things...

Shoot... it just plain toughens us up and sets before us the offered goodness of God... each and every day.

The song a boy named Sue comes to mind...

aiki · Feb 5, 2018

Your OP makes me think of a good friend of mine who, in the last ten years, has had five open-heart surgeries, a myriad of small strokes affecting his memory and cognitive capacities, who cannot work, whose marriage is dissolved, whose bank accounts have emptied, who sees his children infrequently, and much of the time now is tired and intensely nauseous. When I talk with him about his need of a Saviour, he asks me, if he gave his life to Christ, would he be healed physically, and find a new wife, and get a good job. I always respond to my friend the same way when he poses this question: If God did nothing more for my friend than to be to his Saviour and adopt him into His family, would it be enough? "Do you want God," I ask my friend, "Or are you more interested in God's stuff?" My friend so far does not think God alone is particularly valuable or desirable. So, I continue to pray that my friend will see God for who and what He truly is.

God gives us the greatest demonstration of His love in offering Himself to us. If we have Him, we have the very best thing in all of Creation. He is unmatched in power, unparalleled in wisdom and holiness, without peer in His excellence and beauty, incomparable in His faithfulness, grace and mercy. He is the Beginning and End of everything, the Uncaused Cause, the Self-existent One and He says to us,

Revelation 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

There is nothing more loving God can do than to make such an invitation to us and allow us to know Him as our Saviour and Heavenly Father.

It's easy to lose sight of this truth, and when we do, we can soon begin to ask God, "What have you done for me lately?" There is such wickedness in this question! Such unmitigated selfishness and hubris! God is under no obligation to do anything at all for any of us! We don't deserve one single thing from Him except His wrathful punishment of our sin! That God deigns to regard us at all is a thought that brings me to tears! That He loved me and sent His only Son to die a horrible death in atonement for my sin and bring me into intimate fellowship with Himself leaves me speechless, and utterly baffled, and joyful beyond description!

God takes an eternal view of our existence. Our brief time on this planet is just the eye-blink prologue to an endless life with Him beyond the grave. We were made, not for time, but for eternity. When this truth slips from our minds, we can get to wondering why this life isn't more pleasant, more enjoyable than it is. We can wonder why, if God really loves us, our experience of life on this globe doesn't better reflect that He does. This is to fail to take the long view, the eternal view, of things.

We are like people waiting to enter an indescribably magnificent mansion of endless dimensions. We must, though, for a time, stand on the comparatively drab front porch of the mansion before we may enter it. Imagine the foolishness of a man waiting on the porch who begins to think that the porch is the big deal, the main show, that the experiences on the porch are more important than what awaits in the mansion itself! Imagine him grousing about how dull and unpleasant the porch is and bringing into question the goodness and love of the Owner of the mansion who has promised the man entrance into his incredible home. The man has no right even to the porch on which he stands! He certainly doesn't deserve to be let into the Owner's mind-boggling dwelling. Nonetheless, because of the kindness and generosity of the Owner, the man is promised entrance into the Owner's awesome mansion. And yet, the man, looking at the comparatively dull porch he must occupy for a time, thinks he has grounds to question the goodwill, the love, of the Owner. What selfish - and evil - shortsightedness!

Ron Gurley · Feb 5, 2018

God IS love.

1 John 4:8

Saved believers are His beloved children.

John 1:12

When God the Father sees His children, He sees them covered by the blood of the Lamb, God the Son.

Rev. 1:5b
....To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood

God the Holy Spirit permanently indwells saved believers and comforts / guides them through the SANCTIFICATION PROCESS:

John 16:13
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

Oldmantook · Feb 5, 2018

Only IF you obey.

Dwells · Feb 5, 2018

To follow Jesus is not easy and that is where some waiver. To truly follow His teachings will challenge you daily. Things will not become easier for you.
When you are touched by God's love, you will see the world differently. You will easily see the corruption because you have become aware of a greater love inside of you....God's presence.
God gave you brains to deal with your job, sickness, happiness etc....and prayer, which does not change God but changes us.

Blade · Feb 5, 2018

Forgive me.. have to touch this

Your words in this world are true. But not in your FATHERS realm of which you are from. HAHA...your FATHER IS WHO? Your the child of WHOM? Jobless single? He your Father told Adam and Eve to do what? Do you want to stay single? Jobless? Then hold on.. your JOY which is the lords that is your strength... will become even greater!

Tree of Life · Feb 5, 2018

Jesus told the church in Laodicea: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." (Revelation 3:19). God's love makes us holy before it makes us happy. God is more committed to our completion than to our comfort.

Grip Docility · Feb 5, 2018

The Law???

If Righteousness has come by the Law...

Oh... forget it... there’s always one in every bunch...

fhansen · Feb 5, 2018

God won't let us perish eternally if we turn and follow the path of goodness and righteousness, if we follow Him IOW, with His help. God will wipe away every tear. Justice will reign, good and evil won't be allowed to co-exist forever. God has nothing but unimaginable happiness in store for those who love Him.

Daniel Marsh · Feb 5, 2018

Philippians 4:11-12 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
11 I am telling you this, but not because I need something. I have learned to be satisfied with what I have and with whatever happens. 12 I know how to live when I am poor and when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of how to live through any kind of situation—when I have enough to eat or when I am hungry, when I have everything I need or when I have nothing.

Daniel Marsh · Feb 5, 2018

Did you pray for patience?

2 Peter 1:3-13 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
God Has Given Us Everything We Need
3 Jesus has the power of God. And his power has given us everything we need to live a life devoted to God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus chose us by his glory and goodness, 4 through which he also gave us the very great and rich gifts that he promised us. With these gifts you can share in being like God. And so you will escape the ruin that comes to people in the world because of the evil things they want.

5 Because you have these blessings, do all you can to add to your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge; 6 to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add patience; to your patience add devotion to God; 7 to your devotion add kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to this kindness add love. 8 If all these things are in you and growing, you will never fail to be useful to God. You will produce the kind of fruit that should come from your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who don’t grow in these blessings are blind. They cannot see clearly what they have. They have forgotten that they were cleansed from their past sins.

10 My brothers and sisters, God called you and chose you to be his. Do your best to live in a way that shows you really are God’s called and chosen people. If you do all this, you will never fall. 11 And you will be given a very great welcome into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a kingdom that never ends.

12 You already know these things. You are very strong in the truth you have. But I am always going to help you remember them. 13 While I am still living here on earth, I think it is right for me to remind you of them.

fhansen · Feb 5, 2018

Maybe more than one

. Obedience is good, obedience by attempting to follow the Law on our own, being "under the law", doesn't work, it's a pretense of righteousness. Obedience comes the right way, God's way, only to the extent that we love, to the extent that we fulfill the Greatest Commandments, with the help of God, 'Apart from Whom we can do nothing'. Basil of Cesarea, a 4th century believer, put it this way:
"If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for Him who commands . . . we are in the position of children."

Oldmantook · Feb 5, 2018

Who said righteousness comes by the law?? It comes by faith. However, Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
I'll let you figure that out; if you're able.

salt-n-light · Feb 5, 2018

Helps to start on the basis of what type of love it is, which would be agape love. Some describe it as unconditional, but I would describe it as convenant based. On top of the phileo, eros, and storge nature of His love for us, there is a sense of duty and faithfulness that people can never match with. Its almost judicial.When we are His image-bearers, when We carry His name, He has to defend us, because it would be the same as defending Himself. But what happens when we decide not to bear His image? We operate outside of the convenant and as much as we may still experience the phileo, eros, and storge love, it is the convenant and justice fueled love that saves us. That security gets us to sleep at night peacefully.

So practically, the bullet point will look more like this

-Although I may be sick, God will takes care of His children
-Even if I stay sick, God will get glory
-In God, I find joy and truth. Whether I like it or not.
-Whether or not I have this job, God is my provider.

There is a sense of duty there, as oppose to the rest of the three, which are more relational.Relational stuff can change depending on the situation, which is why sometimes God stands in more like a Father in certain times, and more like a friend in other times. That why He have so many names. But what makes God God is that He have a duty to Himself to carry out His will to defend His name, which sometimes takes being a Father, or being a healer, or being a provider.

How to react to that type of love? Worldly minds would take offense to it, that He's an egomaniac, that He's only helping us out for His own benefit alone.But knowing what we know, that we are so fallen, rebellious, and deserving of damnation, and seeing that God went through the greatest of lengths to give us a chance of salvation, and He makes sure He would be with us to the end too, we are definitely getting the better part of the deal. It also gives us confidence, that whatever surprises and doubt comes up, He is ready to defend it and counter it. That's security. That's justice. And naturally the relational stuff with others, like the phileo, eros, and storge love breeds out of that sense of security and obligation.

Thats my take on it.

Far Side Of the Moon · Feb 5, 2018

This is so true. Alot of people, even myself, thinks that if we dont have material blessings or are prospering that God doesnt love us.

Jesus was dearly beloved by God, and he was born in a manger, poor, and was beaten and died a humiliating death.

So material riches don't mean God loves you..remember Lazarus and the rich man.

fhansen · Feb 5, 2018

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God loves me. On a practical level, what does that look like?

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