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How Much Does God Really Love You?
By Criss Bertling

Perhaps you responded to that with something like, “Ridiculous question. I know God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for me because He loves me.” Or you may have thought, “I know God supposedly loves me, but I just can’t relate to it, not with all the stuff happening in my life.” We may understand that Jesus gave up everything in heaven to sacrifice his life on earth so that we would know how much God loves us. The truth is it can be difficult to wrap our minds and hearts around the love of God.

In Ephesians 3:17b-19, Paul prayed that we would be rooted and established in love, and have the power to grasp how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. How does that happen?

Knowing God

When we begin to understand who God is and what He did for us, we begin to realize that He loves us with an everlasting love.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3 (NIV)

How can we grasp the enormity of the love of God? He love us so much that He provided His Son as a substitute to die for our sin so that we might spend eternity with Him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)

The more we can understand God's love for us, the more we will love him in return. The more we love him in return, the more willing we are to do what he tells us to do – and refrain from doing what he tells us not to do. Everything in our lives comes out of the love relationship we build with Christ.

In Ephesians 3:16 17a, Paul prayed that we would recognize that God is already living within us. Knowing that Christ is always with us changes everything about the way we live our lives. Understanding who God is – his being, his persons and his attributes – grows our faith, our trust, and our relationship with Him.

Growing in Christ

How do we grow in our understanding of God and our faith? We learn about Him from the Bible, from Creation, from the way we see Him working in our lives and in the lives of others. We grow in our knowledge of God, ourselves and others, and in our understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

Growing in Christ means digging deeper to understand our relationship with Him, learning to appreciate the value and significance we have to God, and recognizing what is expected of us because we belong to Christ. It means growing in your knowledge of God and his will for your life, in your knowledge of yourself and your ability to live at peace with yourself, and in your ability to relate to yourself and others in a godly way. Growing in Christ also means growing in community so that each believer is connected to others in the church body with whom he grows and serves God while helping others.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Romans 14:17-19 (ESV)

Serving Christ

When we serve God, He uses us to help others and to share the good news of the Gospel. It means we are looking – every day – for opportunities to serve and tell others about Him. We do this in the way we live, the way we relate to others, the way we conduct ourselves at work and at home, and the way we participate in “building up” the body of Christ, using the gifts God has given us.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10 (ESV)