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Overwhelmed by God’s Love …

instead of rejection and fear

The love of God toward you is like the Amazon River flowing down to water a single daisy.

F. B. MEYER

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

JEREMIAH 31: 3

During my recent eight-month journey of being in and out of hospitals and away from pastoring my church, laid up in pain with titanium rods in my back from L1 to T10, I realized that God wants me to be overwhelmed with Him and not with my pain or my problems. As we went through this severe trial, my wife, Gail, and I really grasped this fact and were overwhelmed by God’s love for us. He not only held us together, but He also held the church together. God lovingly took care of the church while I was away, and He showed His love to my wife and me in more ways than I can even mention.

Are you feeling overwhelmed right now? Are you asking, “Where is God? Why has He abandoned me in the middle of my problems?” If so, I can tell you without any doubt that God has not abandoned you. He is right there with you—by your side in the midst of your problems. God was present when I was in my hospital room, repeatedly pushing the button on the remote to the nurses’ station, hoping to get a little bit more medicine to kill the pain I was experiencing. Was it a tough time? Yes, it was a horrific time in my life, but God was right there. Having problems doesn’t mean that God is not present. In the book of Hebrews, the author communicates an amazing promise of God: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5).

So often, we focus on our difficulties: “I can’t believe my boss … I can’t believe my spouse … I can’t believe my children … I can’t believe I’m so broke …” The reality is that we can choose either to be overwhelmed by our problems or to be overwhelmed with God and His presence in our lives. Although difficult things happen to us, God’s love always remains the same. In fact, His love is irreversible and unchangeable. God has held me together and kept me from going crazy; He has never left me. Yes, God has been faithful. I pray that you, too, can make these statements. If not, keep reading as we examine how to make these truths a reality.

God wants to do a sanctifying and growth-producing work in each of us, and He uses both small, irritating problems and immeasurably painful trials to bring about His will—His good path for each of us. God wants to give us His peace. He wants us to comprehend and experience His incredible love for us. The prophet Zephaniah says it best: “The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). God pours out His love on us and rejoices over us.

Looking for Love

For many of us, John 3:16 was one of the first Bible verses we ever heard or memorized: “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.” In this verse, God communicates the depth of His love for people.

One of the most tragic things in our lives is that we really don’t understand the love of God. Every human being, no matter their culture, background or age, has a desire to be loved. But we don’t often experience the unconditional love we long for in our relationships with our families, friends or spouses. We feel as if we have to prove that we’re worthy of someone else’s love.

I remember vividly feeling this way about my dad when I was young. For example, I was excited to play in my first Little League game. My dad was in the stands and saw me hit three home runs and one triple, going 4 for 4. I was thrilled, yet to this day, I can still remember my dad telling me, “Stephen, if you would have paid attention and really looked at the ball, you could have had four home runs!” Although my dad thought he was simply pushing me to be great, in reality, he was saying that I missed the mark in his book, and it crushed my heart.

Have you ever heard one of those “you missed the mark” statements from a loved one? Even in the most encouraging families and marriages, people often fail when it comes to loving unconditionally; as a result, our insecurities grow. Many of us, instead of feeling loved and secure, feel rejected and fearful. Therefore, when it comes to understanding the love of God, we often transfer our insecurities from our human relationships over to our relationship with the Lord. If our human fathers never said they loved us, we might question whether God really loves us. If we couldn’t get the attention of our earthly dads, we likely doubt whether we have our heavenly Father’s attention. If we strove to get our parents’ acceptance and love, we probably also strive to get approval from everyone else, including God. Too often, our relationships are plagued by insecurities instead of being bolstered by love.

Jesus Christ was motivated by love. He came down from glory, humbling Himself in willful obedience to the Father and giving up His rights and His authority so that He could save us. He wasn’t afraid of losing these things, because He understood that everything and everyone, including Himself, belonged to God. We, on the other hand, are usually motivated by insecurity rather than love. We don’t want to give up our rights or our authority because we are afraid that we may lose everything we have attained and built.

Let’s illustrate this: Perhaps we finally have a cherished girlfriend or boyfriend. However, we are so worried about losing this important person in our lives that we become controlling, mistrusting and clingy, to the point of driving him or her away. Or say we finally get a job that we really want. Now that we have it, we feel compelled to do everything we can to protect it—so much so that we become territorial, offensive and unable to work with others. Well, we have now forced the owner’s hand to fire us.

When we are motivated by insecurity, we can lose the very things we are trying to hold on to so tightly. But if we are motivated by love—if we are convinced in our hearts that God has given everything to us—then we trust all that we have to our Father in heaven. If we do not comprehend the love of God for us, and do not rest in our heavenly Father as a God who can be trusted, then we feel as if we have to do everything ourselves. We have to pull our own strings. We have to manipulate people and situations to get what we want or keep what we have.

Jesus’ way of going about things was entirely the opposite. He was confident in who He was—He belonged to God, and He and the Father were one. So He was able to minister with truth, never questioning His identity or value. He was able to allow Judas to kiss Him even as he betrayed Him. He could eat with the publicans and touch the Samaritan and the leper. He could be in the home of a tax collector and even speak to the demon-possessed. Jesus never feared what other people thought about Him. He wholly focused on His purpose: to open the eyes of the blind, to heal the sick and lame, to teach the poor, and to bring the good news to all who would hear it. Jesus came to love people, not to condemn them. In fact, Jesus Himself is love!

The description God gave us for unconditional love appears in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “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. Love never fails.” This unconditional love that God has for us is a foundation to rest in and to model our own love after.

Yet too often we doubt God’s love for us, especially when we feel that He has taken something or withheld something from us. We get overwhelmed when we face trials or difficult problems, and we immediately question God’s love. After all, the erroneous thinking goes, if God loves me, why would He allow me to suffer? Why would He take something or someone from me? In truth, what we need to understand is that God is always thinking about what is best for others—including, but not limited to, what is best for us.

Most of the time we humans, on the other hand, are thinking only about what is best for ourselves. When someone close to us is sick or dying, we want that person to hang around—to stay alive—because, selfishly, we don’t want to be alone; whereas it’s possible God wants to release that person and give him or her a brand-new body. Or perhaps we want that new high-paying job, but God says no because He knows that ultimately it would hurt our relationship with Him and with our families.

In addition to doubting God’s love for us, one of the greatest problems we face in life is accepting love from someone else. Many married couples let their love die because one of the spouses was terribly hurt by the other at one time. A wall is built up, and the hurt spouse does not allow the other back into his or her heart. When people’s feelings get hurt, their defense mechanisms kick in and their hearts become hard, making it very difficult to break through and rekindle love. Sometimes people are so insecure that they simply don’t allow another person to get close enough to them to love them in the first place. Fear of someone seeing them for who they really are and then rejecting them causes people to shun those who only want to reach out to them in love.

But why do we have such a difficult time accepting God’s love for us? After all, He has never hurt us or rejected us. Yet, all too often, we keep His love at a distance. I believe the answer lies in the fact that we do not trust Him; we are fearful of His will in our lives. Therefore, when God says, “I want you to go,” we ask, “Where are You going to send me?” Isn’t it amazing that we think we know what’s best for us rather than God who created us?

Often it boils down to what we want to do versus what God wants us to do. He says, “I want you to go,” and we answer, “If it’s to Hawaii, sure, but if it’s to Iraq, no way!” What we don’t realize is that if God wants us to go to Iraq, it will be better than being in Hawaii because we are where God wants us—in the center of His will. In fact, the most frightening place we can ever be is outside the will of God. The Lord loves us and has a plan and a purpose for our lives; if Iraq is part of that plan, God is going to use us to turn the place upside down.

As we read in John 3:16, Jesus came into the world to love people and to save them from their sins and from themselves. He didn’t worry about His life; He didn’t hold on to it, but gave it away for others. Jesus said that He didn’t give His life because someone told Him to; He did it because He wanted to.

Just as in our world today, so too there were people in Jesus’ time who didn’t want God’s gift of love. The Bible says that these people loved darkness rather than the light. But for those who were needful of and desiring God’s love, Jesus came and touched them. He didn’t come to the rich, the famous, or the people who thought they had it all together. He came to the poor, the sinners, and those who were down and out. Jesus shared His offer of love with anyone who was willing to receive it, as we read in John 1:12: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

God’s Unlimited Love

God wants to fill our hearts with His glorious, unconditional love. It’s a love that knows no boundaries—a love with no limits. Romans 8:35-39 describes the depth of it:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 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.

What can separate us from the love of God? Absolutely nothing. Unlike our human relationships, which can crumble or end over very petty things, God’s love is a constant in our lives. It is something we can count on regardless of the trials or problems we face. God loved us before the foundations of the world were formed, and He will love us after we leave this earth. God loves us when we are faithful, and He loves us when we are faithless.

Let me ask you something personal. That problem you are facing right now—the seemingly insurmountable obstacle that is causing you stress and tempting you to doubt—is it bigger than God’s love for you? Is it able to separate you from the love of Jesus Christ? Of course it isn’t. So I want you to think about why you are so overwhelmed by it. I assure you that God’s love for you is far greater and more powerful than the trouble you are experiencing right now. God’s love will guide you into His perfect will for your life. He will do what is best for you because He loves you.

What exactly does God’s love encompass, and what does it do? Let’s take a closer look at an explanation from the book of John, beginning with that very familiar verse:

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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:16-19).

From this passage, let’s draw a few principles about the love of God, what it encompasses, and what it does.

God’s Love Encompasses the World

The passage begins: “For God so loved the world …” Christ didn’t come just for the Jews; He came for the entire world. God’s love reaches every race, every culture, every nation, every language, every religion, every denomination and every age—every single person. That’s why people from all races can come to Christ. That’s why young and old can receive salvation. That’s why people who have committed adultery or fornication can come to Christ and be saved. That’s why those who are in jail, even those who have committed murder, can be saved—if they reach out to Jesus, who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

When Christ came, He saw a world in need—a world that was living under the curse of sin, and a world that was racked with pain, suffering and darkness. Jesus saw people who were arrogant and unkind, and He saw people who were abused and abandoned. The Lord came for each and every person, desiring that all would come to Him and be saved. He did that because He loves every person who walks the earth.

Do we have the same love for people that Jesus does? Not really. We are very selective as to whom we love. In fact, we sometimes have a difficult time just loving our families, friends or co-workers. We easily can get angry and bitter with people because they do things that we don’t like or that irritate us. Our love is self-centered. We think we should have honor and respect from people—and if we don’t get it, how common is it for us to cop an attitude and become rude and unkind? That’s not what Christ did. In fact, Jesus went to people who were despised by the general public—people like the Samaritans, the lepers, the beggars, the tax collectors and the religious leaders. Jesus even ministered to the Romans, who were politically in charge during that period and were hated by the Jews and others for their oppression. Jesus also reached out to women and children, which was culturally incorrect in His time.

Jesus was on a mission to love people; as many as would come to Him, He would love and save. Today, He draws near to us and says, “I love you; I want to come into your life.” But we make stipulations with words like, “Okay, You can come in, but I’m going to choose my own spouse … I’m going to choose my occupation … I’m going to choose where to go and what to do.”

That’s not the kind of love God is asking for, because unconditional love surrenders 100 percent. Jesus’ love encompasses all people, no matter who they are or what they have done. The Lord left His glory in heaven to come down to earth to love people—the very people who would betray Him, spit on Him, turn their backs on Him, and even crucify Him. When He was on the cross, did Jesus lash back at the people who beat Him and did so many other wretched things to Him? No. Instead, He prayed for them and asked His heavenly Father to forgive them. That’s the love of God. That’s the kind of love the Lord wants us to have toward one another.

Remember the story of Jonah in the Bible? God’s plan for Jonah was for him to go to Nineveh and warn the people there to repent and find God’s salvation. But Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Its residents, known as the Assyrians, had treated the Jews horribly. They had humiliated the Northern Kingdom, stripping people naked and dragging them through the desert for miles. Jonah wanted the Ninevites to be punished; God, however, intended to save them.

Jonah tried to run away from God and His will, but he ended up in the belly of a great fish for three days and nights. Finally, that great fish spit him up on the shore of Nineveh, but Jonah’s heart toward the people had not changed. As Jonah warned them of God’s impending judgment, the people started to repent and turn toward the Lord. Jonah, of course, was not happy about that, so the Lord went after Jonah. While Jonah sat on top of a hill, under the shade of a tree that he loved, God sent a worm to destroy the plant. Because of this perceived indignity, Jonah developed an attitude with God.

The Lord then asked Jonah, “What’s wrong?”

Jonah replied, “My tree is dead.”

God said, “Why do you love this tree more than you love these people?”

Jonah answered, “I don’t want them in heaven; they’re horrible people. I knew that Your great compassion would save them, and that’s why I didn’t want to come to Nineveh!”

The story of Jonah is not only about a nation that repented, but also about a man who was absolutely bent on being angry and unforgiving toward a group of people. God can use us for His purposes, even when we are filled with anger and bitterness toward other people, but He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want us picking and choosing whom we are going to love. He wants us to have compassion toward everyone, not just those in our own little group—our own denomination, our own race, our own language, and so forth.

Here’s a true story about an incredible Englishman, Henry Moorhouse. Before coming to know Christ, Moorhouse was a drunkard and a fighter. One day after Moorhouse’s salvation, when Dwight L. Moody was in England leading a great revival, Moorhouse came to Moody and said, “You know, if I’m ever in the States, I’d like to preach in your church.”

Moody, without thinking, said, “Well, you know, if you ever come over, I’ll let you have the pulpit.” Moody thought that the man would never come to the United States.

About two months later, Moorhouse called and said, “Hi! I’m in town. I’d like to go ahead and take you up on your offer to teach from your pulpit.”

Moody, who was on his way out of town for a speaking engagement, didn’t know what to do. He had never heard the man preach. Although concerned, Moody felt he had to let Moorhouse speak because he had told him in England that he could have his pulpit to preach. So while Moody was out doing his evangelistic crusade, Moorhouse preached from the pulpit to a packed crowd. Each night that Moorhouse preached, the church was completely full—standing room only.

Moody telegraphed his wife and asked, “What has been going on?”

She answered and said, “Don’t even come back.”

So Moody asked, “What are you talking about?”

She answered again, “Don’t even come back, because he is preaching the love of God—something you don’t preach.”

Upset by what his wife had told him, Moody came back to his church to hear for himself what Moorhouse was preaching. With a critical and judgmental attitude, Moody listened to Moorhouse—and the message broke his heart and changed his life. Moody put a sign over his pulpit that read: The Love of God. Ultimately, Moorhouse’s message revolutionized Moody’s ministry.

Jesus Christ came to redeem mankind. But here we are, as Christians, too often putting people down, getting angry with them, and being selective about whom we love. That’s not what God wants us to do. He wants us to be so filled with His love that we impart that love to others—no matter who they are. Our pulpit is the world.

That being the case, we need to have a heart for God that translates to others—the laundryman, our relatives, our neighbors, our leaders and everyone else God brings our way. When we see people, we shouldn’t see culture, race, status or anything else, but people needing the love of God. Our message should be, “What can I do to help you get closer to God?” There’s no room for bitterness, no room for resentment and no room for having an attitude. The only way people are ever going to come to understand the love of God is by the love that we show them. So instead of letting people and their problems overwhelm us, we need to allow God’s love to overwhelm us and, in turn, share it with those around us.

God’s Love Is a Gift

John 3:16 tells us that God “gave His only begotten Son” to us. In other words, God’s love is a gift, freely given to us. This gift can only come from God Himself.

There’s a horrifying yet powerful little story I have heard regarding a drawbridge operator and his young son. One day, the son begged his dad to take him to work. The child loved to watch the bridge go up and down so that the boats could pass through on the river. The dad turned to his boy and said, “You may come, but you need to stand by my side at all times. Son, are you listening? You must not leave my side.”

While the dad was monitoring the bridge (which was open at the time), he told his son that a train was approaching, so he would have to bring the bridge down. But his son didn’t answer him. Horrified, the dad started to panic, calling out to his son over and over again. Then he noticed his son, who had climbed out onto the bridge’s gearbox. The dad looked at the oncoming train and back at his son. There was not enough time to run and get the boy off the gearbox before the train reached the river. Although he desperately wanted to save his son, the dad knew that he couldn’t sacrifice the lives of all the people on the train. So, with tears in his eyes, he brought down the bar that lowered the bridge to allow the train to cross. As the tears flowed down his face, the dad noticed the people on the train, all waving and blowing him kisses as they went by, completely unaware that the man’s only son had just died so that they could live.

On our own, even doing our very best, we would never be able to conquer sin and meet God’s requirement for perfection. We just can’t do it. God knows this. We were born sinners and do not have the power or the ability to conquer sin on our own. So God had to intervene. He chose to solve the problem by bridging the gap Himself. Only His Son, who was sinless, could take the punishment and penalty of sin for each of us so that we could be made righteous in God’s eyes. Jesus willingly came to earth and took the penalty for our sins, even dying on a cross, so that you and I could have a right relationship with God and receive eternal life. Jesus said that He would lay down His life for the sheep, and He did so willingly because He loved us. God willingly gave His Son, who was blameless, as a sacrifice so that we could be saved. That is the love of God. That is the gift that He gives to all who choose to receive it.

God’s love has no boundaries; its dimensions are limitless. Ephesians 3:14-19 relates its vastness:

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may 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.

Our human minds can grasp and visualize the width and height of something that can be seen tangibly, but we don’t really have the capacity to grasp the depth of God’s love. His love is so deep that we are never going to use up His grace—never going to use up all His forgiveness in our lives. Even though we are saved, I am convinced that many believers do not allow the depth of God’s love to penetrate our hearts and lives. The Lord wants us to have depth in our faith—a depth that overflows with love, humility, patience and gentleness. It’s a wonderful way to live when we are filled to overflowing with God’s love, because then we see others the way God sees them. We love people the way God loves us. When we possess that depth of faith, it changes us, our spouse, our kids, our friends, our community and the world.

Accepting God’s Love Is a Choice

Unbelievably, God gives us a choice about whether to accept His love. Honestly, if I were God, I would make everyone as puppets. I wouldn’t trust people to make the right decisions. I would make them love me! But God doesn’t do that—He gives us free will; He lets us make our own choices. Because we are made in the image of God, we have the ability to think and choose. God wants us to freely love Him, just as He freely loves us.

It’s not just that God loves us; He looks for ways to love us. We don’t realize that, do we? We think things like: God, I hope You’re not mad, I hope You’re not angry, and I hope You don’t hurt me! But God loves us unconditionally. He loves us just as we are. He understands our pain and our anguish. God knows that we do the best we can, but it’s not good enough. He made us, after all: “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). So He sent His Son to be our strength, to be our sacrifice, and to help us in all our ways. The Lord sent His Spirit to help us make this choice. It’s the biggest decision we will ever make—to choose to accept God’s free gift of love through His Son and to follow Him.

God’s Love Is Life

Finally, God’s love is life itself—not only everlasting life in heaven, but also abundant life here on earth. Before I came to Christ, my life consisted of drugs, alcohol, violence and despair. But God grabbed me and showed me His love while I was still a sinner. His love gave me not only salvation and a home in heaven, but also a life worth living here on earth.

As believers, we have God’s love, guidance, help, strength, gifts and Spirit to live our lives with true meaning and purpose. God uses us to reach people and change our world. What a glorious life He has given us! There will be problems—many problems, in fact—but God has also promised us a future home where there is no sickness, pain or death. In that eternal home, we will finally live a life free from sin. But even now—even in the midst of our overwhelming circumstances—we have life in Him, and it’s a life worth living.

You might be thinking, Pastor Steve, that all sounds great, but you really don’t understand the difficult problems I am facing in my life right now. Listen, friend, difficult circumstances will be part of every season that we walk through in life. No doubt, unfair events will occur or be inflicted upon us. It is when we encounter these situations that we become overwhelmed. We don’t understand why they are happening, and we focus on questions like: Why me? Why is this happening to me? We should be focusing on what God is doing in the midst of our problems. Instead, we get angry, depressed or mean—and sometimes we even shake our fists at God.

Getting our eyes off the problems and choosing to see God working in the midst of the trials is the path we need to take. All of our overwhelming situations must be filtered through the truth of God’s love. When we truly believe the amazing fact that God loves us, we can choose to be overwhelmed by God and His love instead of by our problems.

How can we choose to be overwhelmed by God? The answer lies in trusting Him completely and letting go of all other options. It is all about perspective. We can beg to be rescued from our trial, constantly surveying the options and striving to work things out to our advantage and comfort, or we can “cut the rope.” That is, we cut the rope of the lifeboat that is clinging to the sinking ship and let the Lord, who has only good thoughts toward us, carry us away from the shipwreck of our lives. It is in the realization that the only good and true option is to trust in the Lord that we become overwhelmed by His love for us.

When we are overwhelmed with the trials of life, it is critical to focus on God’s love—to realize that His plan is already in motion and that He is using our difficult situation to bring about His glory. So often we want to be delivered out of our struggles instead of seeking His glory in the midst of them. When we adopt the perspective that even our worst trial can be an instrument for God’s glory, then we can fasten our seatbelts and begin accepting the ride rather than looking for a way out. As we become overwhelmed by God’s love—as we realize and trust that He is at work in our situations—our fears are replaced with His peace.

I know all about wanting to give up. I’ve had numerous problems with my health in my adult years. But during this past year, I experienced by far the worst health challenge I have ever faced. The problem was with my back. I actually had to return to the hospital for the same surgery four times over a span of eight months as a result of screws popping out and other bones cracking or breaking. The pain was nearly unbearable, and so was the discouragement. During this time, I battled both depression and anger because I felt so out of control over my own body. Many nights were filled with intense pain, and so often I would just ask God, “Why?”

Satan would taunt me with lies like, “God is not listening to you,” or “God doesn’t care about you,” but I knew better. I knew God loved me. I knew in my heart that God had led me to a great doctor who was committed to helping me. I was confident that God would not abandon me, even though I was struggling to see what He was doing in my circumstances. My faith was tested tremendously, but I knew He had a plan and that if I could just grasp a godly perspective, I would be all right.

We should rest so fully in the unlimited, unchangeable love of God that we trust Him to work in His way and on His schedule. When we do that, we will begin to see just how much the Lord loves us, and we will find peace and rest in the midst of our storms.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Instead of being overwhelmed with rejection and fear, what does God want us to be overwhelmed with?

2. Why is it that we feel rejected and fearful?

3. Why do we doubt God’s love for us, and why do we have a difficult time accepting His love?

4. What exactly does God’s love encompass?

Images PRAYER Images

Lord, thank You for Your love for me. Thank You that it is unconditional, irreversible and a free gift I could never earn. Overwhelm me with Your love. Let me be so full of Your love that it overflows to everyone I meet. Help me to love even the difficult people You bring into my life. Help me to love even when it is inconvenient. I want to love like Jesus does. I want to love others the way You love me. Amen.