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All of us want to be loved by someone.  We want our spouses, our family and our friends to love us.  And many of us have experienced the joy of being loved.  Alas, some who read these lines feel unloved and uncared for.  For you there is good news.  God loves you. 

God loves because He is love.  He loves because that is His character and nature.  All through the Old Testament God is described as a God who loves unconditionally.  Many people perceive the God of the Old Testament as stern and unloving.  But that is a misconception. 

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, penned these words from God to a disobedient nation – “The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3) 

John, the apostle, declared emphatically that “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16) and it is comforting to know that God does not change. 

The good news is that God loves the world.  He loves the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the good and the bad.  There is no one on planet earth that He does not love.  He loves you. 

God has expressed His love to us in many ways.  Daily we are recipients of His blessings.  His mercies are new every day.  As the Psalmist said, “He daily loads me with blessings.” 

But God’s love was most vividly displayed when He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”  God had only one Son and He gave Him for us because He loves us. 

The Bible says, “but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  1 John 3:16 says, “and by this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.” 

The cross was the ultimate expression of God’s love.  There God laid on Jesus the sin of the whole world.  There the Son bore the full impact of righteous judgment.  There He died for us and offers us the gift of everlasting life and eternal forgiveness. 

A gift must be received.  An action is required on our part.  God has done all He can do.  We are now called to believe and receive. 

The promise is, that if we will believe that Christ died for our sins we will not perish but have everlasting life.  Later in this chapter Jesus said, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  (John 3:36) There are two options. 

There are two roads and two doors. 

I urge you today to accept His love, place your faith in Christ’s death on the cross for you and receive His forgiveness and eternal life.